
Class. 
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Copyright]^^- 



COPVRIGHT DEPOSKR 



AUCTION-ALL VALUES 
BRIDGE AND DUMMY PLAT 

Laws of Auction and Bridge 

AMERICAN AND ENGLISH 



BY 

JOHN B. GLEASON 



Sent on Receipt of Price, $1.25 Net 



A. W. GLEASON 

210 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY 



?.^v 



Copyright, 1912, by 
A. W. GLEASON 



€C!.A3145S5 
7 1^ / 



AUCTION BIDS 

New Values at Auction. — This book points 
out the rules of bidding and of play inseparable 
from the scheme of the game at any values; 
but if no other values are named it will be taken 
that the values are 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, for spades, 
clubs, diamonds, hearts, royals (lilies), notrump. 
In the old game, the bids go unevenly and 3 
notrump ends the bidding. In no system should 
the notrump count more than 10 and there 
should always be a low safe bid. What bids 
should be allowed between these essential bids 
has been much debated, but as soon as any one 
plays the new bids he sees their superiority 
over the old. The doubtful point is the in- 
creased spade value at 9. This is the most 
amusing game; it gives better opportunity to 
bid the suits against each other; the nearness 
between H and EL brings a struggle between 
these suits and introduces many new problems. 
My own prejudice against the El has worn 
away after playing the new values; in fact it 
seems that the game requires more skill than 
before. Diamonds and clubs are made real 
fighters; there is a contest all along the line. 



2 Auction Bids 

Notrmnp-2, clubs-2, notrump-S, diamonds ! (This 
2 notrump at the bridge values required 4 dia- 
monds or 6 clubs.) Three-notrump, 5 diamonds, 
double, redouble. Such a bidding shows a sharp 
difference of opinion and the best judge of the 
card combinations is the winner. Ordinarily it 
will be the 4 h or rl which will take away the 
pre-eminence of the 3 notrump. So in the con- 
test between h and rl, one suit may be assisting 
the one and one the other and the game-winning 
bid or the high penalty-winning bid may turn 
upon the showing of the outside help or by the 
proper moment at which the assistance is given. 
Then there is the amusing game which the Eng- 
lish call "Fatten Them Up," referring to the 
obtaining of large penalties from their over- 
bidding which you double instead of trying for 
game. In saying that diamonds and clubs are 
fighters, note that 3 clubs makes him raise his 
2 rl to 3 rl and be careful to note that his last 
bid is not beaten by 4 clubs, but is beaten by 4 
diamonds. But 3 hearts is beaten by 4 clubs. 
Now shall he go 4 hearts or double your 4 clubs? 
Here the weakness of your suit is some protec- 
tion in that your bid does not take you out, but 
he may double you out. His bid of 3 hearts 
which was probably here prohibitive at the old 
game, since you could hardly have a 3 notrump 
call against it, is justly removed from the com- 



Auction at New Values 3 

manding position which it had by the strength 
of the pack; and skill of bidding is required. 
A few rounds of bidding will give many other 
iUnstrations. It appears that it may be affirmed 
without hesitation, that the foregoing is the 
most scientific and interesting system that can 
be devised. Those formerly invincible hands 
are called to a strict account ; by judicious bid- 
ding the old prohibitory bid of 3 notrump or 
4 hearts is driven up and is doubled. 

Auction at the Beidge Values. — Spades 2; 
Clubs 4; Diamonds 6; Hearts 8; notrump 12. 
Bid notrump on a strong hand and bid hearts 
if you are willing to play hearts and bid spades 
on a weak hand. A diamond or club bid indi- 
cates help for a notrump and is not made on 
length of suit only. A bid of 2 spades also indi- 
cates a subsidiary notrump and should not be 
made without actual strength in spades. This 
is a useful bid, but is at the disadvantage that 
it allows the second bidder to show any suit 
and if your partner has a bad hand and the 
bid is "2 spades-no-no," the fourth bidder is 
certain that he can double the make ; but the last 
position is uncommon and calls on him to choose 
between the double and the winning of a game. 
"When the dealer has bid 1 spade or 2 spades, 
the second bidder having any good hand is in 
a strong position because he is not compelled to 



4 Auction Bids 

bid as is the dealer; he may make any wiiming 
bid with the alternative of showing a strong 
black suit as an invitation to a notrump or to 
indicate what suit should be led to him if the 
third bidder bids notrump. If he passes, the 
third hand will allow the dealer's heart bid to 
stand if he can help the hearts; he will call 
any good notrump, particularly on any invita- 
tion bid of his partner. If the dealer has called 
notrump or hearts and the second bidder has 
overcalled him, he will assist on good support 
in accordance with the rules hereafter given. 
Some play with Eoyals at 10, making a game 
inferior to the game at the new values. 

HoNOES. — ^Whatever the values are, you ob- 
tain the honor score by multiplying the trick 
value by 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, for the 6 possible cases 
of 3 or more honors held by two partners joiatly 
or all in one hand. By multiplying once or 
twice from the bottom up and from the top 
down, these multipliers will be fixed in mind. 
In notrump 3 aces are 30, 4 are 40, 4 in one 
hand are 100. 

Be Familiar with the Laws. — The laws of 
auction of the Whist Club of New York are the 
standard, and with the careful revision of Mr. 
Clarence A. Henriques cover well the incidents 
for which laws are required. They are based 
upon the celebrated whist laws of the Portland 
Club ; celebrated for the report that there never 



Analysis op the Game 5 

was a syllable or conuna of them but that called 
for construction, having been written by a mas- 
ter in the art of double entendre. It is assumed 
that you know the laws and that it is unneces- 
sary to repeat what they clearly state. 

Analysis op the Game. — In a game possess- 
ing unusual features, it is important to know 
the theory and to see how far one could go to- 
ward knowing how to play, without ever play- 
ing. These cards derive their value from their 
rank and from length of suit and from the posi- 
tion of high cards with reference to other high 
cards. The chief game is the highest game, 
notrump, where all the suits are equally valu- 
able. A singleton, even if a high card, may 
make the hand vulnerable as notrump, but 
strong at trumps; so that there is a conflict 
between the claim of one part of the hand to 
be a notrump and the claim of some long suit 
asking to be made the trump. A good game 
might be made by giving the same value to all 
the suits, but ranking differently in the bidding, 
and requiring 10 tricks for game in trumps as 
against 9 in notrumps. This difference of one 
trick is vital. To take 10 tricks requires great 
strength ; the added trick is the one that cannot 
be got. The counting hands are the hands which 
win the game on the deal ; a lower score is unim- 
portant in comparison. An expensive penalty 



6 Auction Bids 

attends the failure to make the bid. We may 
conclude a priori, as the metaphysicians say, 
that there is objection to taking great risks on a 
hand which does not look at all like game, but 
does look strong enough to keep them from 
going game. In such a hand two questions 
arise : Can I tell my partner by my bid the sort 
of a hand I have? Can I safely bid them up 
so that they cannot make their bid? Coming 
to the bid of a trump, it is plain that if all the 
suits were of the same count per trick, but 
ranking higher in the bidding, the fact that one 
suit has higher bidding values above it puts it 
at a serious disadvantage. To overcome this 
it would be well, wherever practicable, to start 
the lower suit at a higher bid, as of 2 in the 
suit, in the hope that the higher suits are so 
divided that no one will venture a bid of 2. 
This position is still more plainly marked in the 
actual game where all the suits are valuable but 
count 6, 7, 8, 9. The lower suit claims a higher 
bid and says — "Why bid me, if you are not will- 
ing at the start to equalize my position with 
the others ? The answer should be that I desire 
to invite my partner to call notrump, by show- 
ing him the strength in the inferior suit. At 
once it appears that the difference of this, 6, 7, 
8, 9, is a great difference. An important and 
most desirable diversity is produced by the fact 



Analysis of the Game 7 

that diamonds and clubs require more tricks 
for game. The important distinction emerges 
that if you bid a higher suit, you should be 
willing to play it, while the lower bids should 
be of an informatory nature. Therefore the 
bid of one on five or six: clubs or diamonds to 
the queen is a false bid and incurs heavy penal- 
ties by inviting your partner to bid up his no- 
trump. A very strong hand may give you an 
option of commencing with a weaker bid than 
the strength of the hand indicates. With such 
a hand the question of the kind of the players 
with whom you are playing enters intimately 
into the question of your first bid. "With some 
adversaries all that is needed to start them bid- 
ding is to bid 1 spade ; they will bid your great 
suit or when you turn to it will bid up their suit 
and will either double your final bid to their 
great loss, or will give you a great penalty by 
doubling them. When this game was begun, it 
was played by those among whom, if we may 
judge by the statements of these excellent and 
genial players themselves, there was no super- 
fluity of good players ; to call them a school or 
rival schools is beside the mark; but there was 
a tendency to commence with low bids and by 
the display of the bidding to work towards a 
higher bid. Now, with every one going fast, a 
good player will at times go slow. Eules of 



8 Auction Bids 

play have the peculiarity that if they are so 
good that every one follows them, they are not 
so good. If you come to a time when everyone 
knows that your bid always means one thing, 
you will in dangerous and critical situations 
make the bid when it does not mean that thing 
at all; if you see that it will frighten and turn 
them to a better bid, that is, a bid better for 
you. It is clear, however, that any good, strong 
bid is stronger for being made promptly. After 
your bid, the lower bids are at the disadvantage 
that to bid 2 requires a strong suit and the 
strength may be so divided that the bid will 
not be made, thus shutting out the information 
which might have given them a game bid. Also 
with a ragged suit the second bidder fears that 
he may be pointing out a notrump to your part- 
ner by showing him that he is over the high 
cards, giving them the option of a notrump or a 
double by making a bid which does not seem a 
game bid. Therefore it often happens that by 
your strong bid, the second bidder is debarred 
from showing a suit where if he had shown it 
his partner would have pointed to a winning 
notrump. With hands called strong, as opposed 
to very strong, the question is, How far will 
the added strength of the trumps compensate 
for having to make more tricks than a notrump ? 
The best way here is to classify your hands by 



Analysis of the Game 9 

the length of the longest suit. Such an uncom- 
mon thing as 8 or 9 in suit absolutely demands 
the trump. A 7-card suit hand cries aloud to 
be declared in trumps. With 6 or 7 in EL or 
H, if they are so strong that even if your part- 
ner bids notrump they will require you to bid 
them again, why not bid 2 at the start? This 
may save you from having to bid 3. At times 
this is a good bid, but ordinarily applies to an 
unbalanced hand which is made very strong as 
a playing hand, if played in the bid. In the 
6 or 7 card suit hands, serious questions arise 
which will have to be considered in detail. The 
bulk of your notrumps will be in the 5 and 4 
card suit hands. Assuming that you do not have 
a notrump, or a bid of 2, or a bid as good as 1 H, 
the question is, should you not make the bid of 1 
spade, or should you try to show something to 
your partner? This brings up the question, 
How much strength do I expect my partner to 
have on my strong bid, and how much strength 
may he hope that I have on my 1 spade bid? I 
bid on the hope or theory that he will have as 
good as one-third of the strength outside of 
my hand, and thinking that he may readily have 
more by reason of the advantage of seeing the 
dummy and combining the two hands. There- 
fore, if on my bid the second bidder overcalls 
me, my partner should hesitate about support- 



10 Auction Bids 

ing me with only moderate help. If the partner 
passes, it will be hoped that he is not one of 
those miintentionally informatory players who 
pass cheerfully if they have nothing; but, if 
they have something, hesitate so long that the 
dealer is informed of it. Assuming that he has 
avoided this most serious fault and that the bid 
is back to me, I think that he has as good as 
one sure trick and probably more than that, 
but not a strong hand. If I am the dealer's 
partner and he bids 1 spade, I think that he has 
more than one trick and that he may have an 
ace. With the advantage of playing the dummy, 
I count him for two obvious tricks and the 
probability of establishing some low cards in* a 
long suit. I think that if his hand is not so 
strong as this, they will go on with their bid. 
Therefore he should not take my trump bid up 
to 3 without some reason more than two tricks, 
such as a singleton in their suit or a hand which 
he thinks will help to nine tricks by reason of 
something outside of the trump bid. The fact 
is that with all these suits bidding against each 
other every one knows how to bid 2 ; that is, he 
thinks he does and will care little for the analy- 
sis hereafter given. But because he remembers 
losing 1,200 or 1,500 points at times, he would 
be willing to attend to any analytical arts that 
could tell him how to bid 3 or 4 safely, or to 



How TO Bid at Any Values 11 

double their bids and obtain a great penalty. 
Nor is this difficult to answer. You cannot 
bid the 4 safely unless you bid the 2 safely. 
And you cannot bid the 2 safely on a hand which 
denies the possibility of a great score and is 
below the average of the hands likely to be out 
against the bid. Analysis also condemns the 
practice of inviting a notrump on a hand which 
is below one-fourth of the strength of the pack, 
counting the hand as a playing hand and consid- 
ering the possible combinations in playing the 
two hands. 

How TO Bid at Any Values. — Three notrump 
for game; 4 in some suit for game; 5 in some 
suit for game ; and a low safe bid, are indispen- 
sable. The notrump will always have the great 
superiority and everything that cuts down the 
values of the intermediate suits increases the 
dominance of the notrump. It will always be 
true that it is safer to declare a good notrump 
at once, in order to shut out informatory bids. 
The rules hereafter given for the notrump are 
valid with notrump at 12 and EL left out, or 
with any values, so long as the notrump remains 
at the top. The principle of invitation bids for a 
notrump rests in the inability of these suits to 
go game. In the new bidding, two club shuts 
out a one notrump ; in the old bidding two clubs 
is a stronger invitation to a notrump than a 



12 Auction Bids 

one-club bid. The new bids combine the high 
and low values so ingeniously that the ability 
to bid at these values carries with it the ability 
to bid at any other values. In every system 
of bidding the maxim will remain true — Do not 

BID AGAINST THE STRENGTH OP THE PACK. 

Name the bidders 1, 2, 3, 4. Name the players 
A with D against L and E; that is, A the de- 
clarer with his dummy D, against the left and 
the right-hand adversary of the declarer. When 
it is said to bid the suit, if the suit is in spades 
EL is meant. The bid of 1 spade ; 2 spades ; is 
in the nature of a convention rather than a suit 
bid. Note that when it is said to do this or 
that with such strength, it is understood that 
this is all in the hand that is given as the exam- 
ple or limit. What you should do with a single- 
ton, or other peculiar distribution, or a hand 
which may add other strength, or suggest other 
weakness, is not included in the rule xmless it is 
expressly named. 

Numerical Formulas. — These are a poor sub- 
stitute for card sense. At bridge formulas were 
given which required a blackboard, a chart and 
a recess. It may interest the beginner to count 
for his notrump A, 7 ; K, 5 ; Q, 3 ; J, 1 ; 2 10s, 1. 
At bridge he requires 19 for his notrump, 
divided over 3 suits. 

The only numerical formula for you to follow 



The Theoeetical Aveeage Hand 13 

is ; How many tricks can I count in my hand on 
this make? How many losing cards are there? 
These questions are vital. Thus; I have 6 
trumps good for 5 tricks, and a suit of 5 good 
for 4 tricks. I have 4 losing tricks and can bid 
up to 3 without any help from my partner. 
This method must be followed in bidding up the 
hand, with the caution that an unbalanced hand 
or a hand with only 5 trumps calls for many 
other considerations. I have never had the 
pleasure of playing against any one who based 
his bids on giving numbers to the cards, but 
from what I read and hear it, seems certain 
that it would be a great pleasure. There is no 
short cut or royal road as a substitute for card 
sense. 

The Theoeetical Aveeage Hand. — Such a 
hand has one-fourth of the strength and length 
of the pack fairly divided between the suits. 
It has no singleton and is in the distributions 
4432—5332—5422—4333. 

Ax-kxx-ql0x-i98x is the theoretical limit for 
a notrump bid and is to an extent a freak hand, 
in that the average strength is so protected that 
no adversary can lead off a solid suit. With 4 
average hands substantially alike, the advan- 
tage of seeing the dummy may be decisive. Thus 
in a common way of card makers in sorting their 
packs, a deal without shuffling gives each hand — 



14 Auction Bids 

Ak95-qxx-jxx-10xx, and the declarer may make 
4 for Ms aces and kings, 2 queens and 2 thir- 
teenth cards; and with a slight change giving 
a 5 card suit may go game. Such facts empha- 
size the desire of the declarer to go notrump. 
The term "average hand," in this book, will be 
understood to mean a hand as good as the above 
hand, which in different distributions may re- 
quire another honor, but with the average 
strength divided between at least 3 suits. The 
average hand for a notrump has 5 possible 
tricks either by counting the probability of 
makiQg a small card good or by the added 
honor. 

A just and equal theoretical distribution is 
impossible, because the cards cannot be so ar- 
ranged but that one side must take one trick 
more than the other. 

Classify the hands as very strong; strong; 
weak; using the idea of average strength and 
length as a guide. This classification places 
average hands among the strong hands on the 
principle that the card that makes the hand 
strong leaves it weak — ^not average — by taking 
it away. 

AcQuiEE Cabd Sense by Knowing the Com- 
mon Combinations and Make Yottr Own Illus- 
TEATivE Hands. — Principles of play and illustra- 
tive hands based upon high and unusual com- 



Acquire Caed Sense 15 

binations must not be allowed to influence the 
ordinary play. It is a common error to try to 
support some theory of usual play by giving a 
phenomenal hand. Also it is idle to name all 
sorts of hands on which you should do this or 
that. In bidding you should have a standard of 
the lowest limit on which you will make this or 
that bid. Then all the higher hands are so 
much the better, but need not be named. After 
you have learned to call notrump on 3 aces, do 
you need to be told that you may do so with 4? 
Divide a suit between 4 hands, first giving all 
the strength to one hand and then changing the 
honors around. Can you not see at once that 
with A,Q, J in your hand you need to lead twice 
from dummy and finesse if the K is on your 
right? That with A,J,10,x it may be good play to 
lead to this hand and play the 10 the first time 
if the K or Q or both are on your right? that 
with only an honor in each hand as A — Q — ; 
K — Q — ; or Q — J — it is better that they should 
lead the suit? Ordinary players do not know 
these facts, after years of play, and yet they 
should be known in 15 minutes, by sorting out 
the combinations yourself and leading them. If 
you wish to be a good player, as soon as you 
have lost a game by your bad pla-y, turn that 
game into an illustrative hand, illustrative to 
you as a warning against that error. 



16 Auction Bids 

Study carefully the tables of combinations 
hereafter given, so that you may know what the 
illustrative hands which you see printed actually 
indicate for your guidance. All such hands are 
interesting from some standpoint, but if the 
printed hand shows an uncommon situation and 
your remembrance of it influences your play m 
a common situation, the hand does harm. Some 
players who would otherwise be very good play- 
ers lose many games by playing with the re- 
membrance of something extraordinary. The 
fact that a position has occurred in actual play 
gives it no authority over any other position; 
the question is a question of probabilities. I 
have seen hands in actual play where the leader 
would have won by leading the 2 from A,K,Q, 
J,2. 

Classify your notrump hands as notrump in 
the 7 card suit hand; in the 6, 5, 4, suit hands 
and have a standard in your mind for each suit 
hand. Commenciug this way your attention is 
emphatically directed to the fact that with a 
suit of 7 the hand is unbalanced and if it is not 
protected in all the suits with a fair chance of 
taking tricks in the great suit it would be much 
safer to play this hand as a trump. Classify 
your trump hands in the same way and notice 
that as the length of the suit decreases the claim 
of a strong hand to be called notrump increases. 



Bid 1 Spade on a Weak Hand 17 

As soon as your hand falls below the standard 
of game winning bids, be very cautious. 

Bid 1 Spade on a Weak Hand. — This includes 
a hand that you do not like the looks of ; a hand 
where the bid may mislead your partner and is 
not strong enough to bid notrump or to invite 
a notrump. This hand may have some strength 
in it. You cannot afford to have it known that 
there never is an ace in your hand when you 
bid 1 spade; you may have 2 or 3 good cards. 
Any hand with 6 or 7 to the queen and little 
outside is a 1 spade. It is so weak for no trump 
that if 3 bids notrump, you may have to bid 2 in 
the long suit; it would be well enough to have 
this suit made trumps, but the danger is that 
your bid of one in the long suit may lead your 
partner to bid notrump. Four overcalls him 
and your partner, being protected once in that 
suit, bids up his notrump. I do not know how 
far he will go if he has the king of your suit and 
relies upon you for a strong bid. 

Do Not Lose Moee Than One Eubbeb at 
Once. — This happens daily from trying to make 
bad hands take the place of good ones; from 
starting with a bid from which your partner 
may reasonably hope that you are stronger than 
the hand before you is. The fact is that if you 
and your partner have bad cards, you cannot 
make them take the place of good ones at auc- 



18 Auction Bids 

tion. But in many cases where a bad player 
will run Ms losses up to 2 or 3 rubbers in one, 
you can restrict your loss to the fair value of 

1 rubber. Extend your 1 spade bid to all cases 
where a different bid invites your partner to 
overbid his fair hand up to 2 or 3, relying upon 
the assertion by you of high cards which you do 
not have. 

The Bid of 2 Spades. — Where EL is not 
played, 2 spades shows strength in spades and 
an invitation to a notrump. With EL played, the 
bid is less frequent. It may be made on a hand 
having high spades, not enough for EL and 
cards, which will help a notrump well; but un- 
protected in one suit and not much or nothing in 
a third suit : a 6 card spade suit to Q JlOxxx with 
AK in a second suit is better bid as 2 EL than 

2 spades. An imusual distribution, or a single- 
ton is ordinarily a bad 2 spade bid. It seems 
that the f ollowiug hand should have been started 
as 1 spade— S., K,Q,8,2; H., K,10; C, 7 ; D., 
10,8. Here the partner, who was a good and 
hopeful player, bid his notrump up to 3, and 
would have made the bid if the dealer had had 
a second club. The singleton may help a suit 
declaration, but makes such a hand weaker than 
it should be as a declared subsidiary notrump. 
The practice of bidding 2 spades on a hand with- 
out a sure trick in spades is bad. Some play- 



Bid 2 on Peculiar Hands 19 

ers bid 2 spades where others would bid no- 
trump. Others will bid 3 spades on A,K of 
spades and A,K in a second suit. The rule is 
to bid notrump rather than 2 spades, A hand 
with only 3 possible tricks is below average 
strength and is 1 spade rather than 2 spades. 

Very Strong Hands Are a Law to Them- 
selves. — ^With such hands you have the right to 
make any bid which looks like winning the game. 
Thus 6 hearts to Q, J,10,x,x,x with 2 outside aces 
is a very strong hand if played in hearts. Such 
a hand may be started as 1 heart or as 2 hearts 
with a preference for the latter bid. Very strong 
hands at times permit you to set a trap where 
you see larks perching about the tables. This 
is a dangerous thing to do ; for it will not always 
succeed, even against those always bidders ; and 
when it does not and you are left to play one 
spade on a game winning hand, no one will be 
very sorry for you, and any praise from your 
partner will be of a perfunctory nature. 

Bid 2 on Very Strong and Peculiar Hands. 
— Here the hand is unbalanced and you may 
wish to shut out a bid which may carry you up 
to 3 or 4. The foregoing rule is a suggestion 
for your variety in bidding. Do not bid 2 if you 
can bid one just as well. The bid should be 
made on a hand which you are willing to play 
at the bid. If you are along on the score, a bid 



20 Auction Bide 

of 2 may be made in clubs or diamonds ; for the 
partner will see the possibility of game and that 
the hand is governed by the long suit and will 
wish to assist. The practice of the best play- 
ers is not uniform here and this shows that care 
must be taken in making the bid. Thus some 
good players with a long solid suit of spades or 
hearts will at times bid 2, but do not favor the 
bid of 2 on a long suit of 6 or 7 to the queen and 
an outside ace. They will bid 1 spade on such 
a hand, expecting to bid 2 in the suit when the 
bid comes to them again. They say that a hand 
that does not look like a game winning hand 
does not call for an expensive bid. It is well to 
fix a limit, at which limit you will consider the 
question of bidding 2. First you note that the 
hand does not help a notrump well ; second, that 
it has 7 possible tricks if the trump is declared ; 
third, that if you bid one in the suit it may mis- 
lead your partner. In such cases, a bid of 2, 
particularly if you are 12 on the score may be 
a better bid than 1 spade. Here your bid warns 
your partner that you have a strong reason for 
thinking that the hand should be played in 
trumps. If you are a conservative bidder he 
will think that you have a very long suit, which 
at notrump may take 2 leads to establish, and 
that you have an outside ace. 



Bid Spades 21 

Bid Spades. Bid Notrump. Bid Tops. Bid 2. 
— By the first rule we revert to the principles, 
if any, of the founders of our game ; and declare 
the intention of bidding spades unless convinced 
to the contrary by something in the hand. But 
if you always bid spades you will never win. 
No, but I will lose only one rubber at a time. 
Those high cards are all somewheres. I have 
not my share of them. The number of winning 
combinations is very great. I do not see one of 
them. The fact is that I am beaten so far as 
this hand is concerned. I will take this loss 
and bid 1 spade. Then if my partner has a 
hand on which he can bid 2 or 3, those cards — 
on which you think that I might have taken a 
one to three chance — ^will be there and will help 
him. Any hand which is actually below the 
strength of one-fourth of the pack is a spade 
bid. By the rule — Bid notrump — we recognize 
a hand with more strength, or fully as much 
strength as the strength of one-fourth of the 
pack. Because of the advantage of playing two 
hands together, I am willing to bid this hand a 
notrump. Now I have a different hand, not a 
notrump, but with a long suit with top cards in 
it. I will bid this suit. On this rule, I will not 
bid one in any suit without as good as the king 
and other high cards in it and such length in 
the suit that I am willing to play it for trumps. 



22 Auction Bids 

My bid of one says tliat I have the ace or king 
with such length and strength that I am willing 
to play this bid in EL or hearts ; if the bid is in 
clubs or diamonds I have as good as that and 
am willing to play it at the score, for my suit is 
so strong that my partner should know it with 
reference to going notrump, or leading that suit 
on their notrump. Here an exception is sug- 
gested in EL or hearts. If a game winning com- 
oination is shown in these suits, the suit may be 
bid on a long suit to the queen and outside 
strength. It is not meant that the hand itself 
must show game, but that it shows a fair chance 
for game with natural help from the dummy. 
Wherever the hand is such that if the partner 
went notrump you would feel obliged to change 
the bid to EL or hearts, that suit may be bid in 
the first instance. Why not wait! Well, they 
may show a lower suit and bid me up. They 
bid a club; my partner passes; they bid a no- 
trump. Now bid your 2 hearts. The inferior 
position is that if I had bid my heart at the 
start, the second bidder might not have been 
able to show his club suit. This reason is ade- 
quate to the extent of justifying the heart bid 
on a really good hand; where if the partner 
went notrump there would be help for him, and 
good help even if it took 2 rounds to establish 
the heart suit. Here the last part of the rule 



Bid Spades: Notrump: Tops: Two 23 

says : Bid 2 if you cannot bid tops but think that 
you should bid your hand. You ought not to be 
willing to bid one in a suit which may mislead 
your partner, unless your hand is so strong that 
you are willing to bid 2 even if the second bid- 
der bids against you and your partner passes. 
If this position is granted, then why not make at 
the start the bid that you are willing to make 
after the disadvantage of their bid? The an- 
swer is that the varieties of hands are greater 
than any rule. On some hands by reason of a 
singleton, etc., there is a good bid of one but not 
of 2. Two partners who play the above rule, 
rejecting the above exceptions, against two part- 
ners who do not will have a decided advantage. 
Thus — 1 spade — 1 diamond — ^no — 1 notrump 
(2) ; 2 hearts — no — ^no — 2 notrump (3) ; no — no 
— 3 hearts — 3 notrump (4) ; no — ^no — double — 
no. The second bid of the dealer is shown to his 
partner to be on a long suit to the queen and an 
outside ace, if the dealer is a good bidder. The 
partner's support and double is on the king and 
another heart and a likely trick in two suits. 
He argues that his partner will be able to estab' 
lish his great suit by leading it at once before 
his entry card is taken away. A great penalty 
is now secured from a hand which would have 
not taken more than 2 by cards at hearts. If 
the dealer had shown strength on his first bid. 



24 Auction Bids 

they would not have bid up their notrump, but 
when the dealer bid one spade and his partner 
passed, the possibility of 3 notrumps was much 
greater. Therefore the principle of always bid- 
ding simply because you have something in the 
hand has its drawbacks. There is always a 
sound discretion in the making of bids. Try the 
above text as your rule and require some good 
reason for departing from it. Absolutely to be 
condemned is the practice of some old whist 
players of showing a long weak suit, because 
they know that with that suit for trumps they 
would take some tricks and without it they will 
take no tricks. They forget that they are not 
going to be allowed to play that suit ; that what 
is going to happen is that the enemy will bid a 
suit and their partner will bid 2 or 3 notrumps 
on the strength of their bid and that they will 
be doubled and will lose the value of a rubber 
on the hand. 

Do Not Bid a Shokt Suit to Show Tops In 
It. — Never do this in EL or hearts. The rule 
condemns the common practice of bidding any 
short suit to show the ace. If the short suit 
has high cards in it, the hand is a notrump or 
a spade. Take a hand with 3 diamonds to the 
ace and an outside king — and nothing else — for 
you will remember that all the hands herein 
given are limits and name all the good points in 



Do Not Bid a Shoet Suit 25 

the hand — it is a weak hand. Two high cards 
with the king, and the hand is still weak. Add an- 
other high card and bid the notrmnp yourself; 
you can now count the hand up to 5 tricks. If the 
hand is objected to as a notrump, as void in 2 
suits, or in fact weak now that you come to look 
at it on the theory of playing it yourself instead 
of sitting back and seeing your partner try for 
his 3 notrump bid made after your invitation — 
bid 1 spade and be glad that you have some good 
cards to do it on. If you go on bidding with 
hands which are in fact weak, of course you 
will win, and of course you will lose; the bal- 
ance will be largely against you, because of the 
penalty. What some players do is that they 
constantly bid an odd or two against a large 
penalty. At the same time, the practice of a 
player who says — You may be certain that I 
have tops, or as good as an ace, if such a thing 
can be, in any suit 1 bid, is a strong position. 
There is no comparison between the skill of this 
bidder and the folly of those weak suit bidders. 
The use of a book like this is not to instruct 
good players, but to make bad play known as 
bad play to beginners. For them I will state 
the fact that only yesterday my partner, an old 
whist player, bid one club. I carried my no- 
trump up to 2 and was doubled with a great 
penalty, because all that he gave me was 6 clubs 



26 Auction Bids 

to the Q,9, and the king of spades, and the re- 
mark as he put down his hand, "Of course I had 
to show you the best I had." It is not denied 
that at times bad bids work well. Just as the 
most difficult plays at golf are the things that 
beginners do all the while ; so at auction a bad 
bidder will at times interpose a bid whose bad- 
ness is so inconceivable that the adversaries mis- 
read his hand and fail of their game. 

Do Not Eisk Being Doubled Wheee They 
Cannot Go Out on Their Bid. — This means not 
to give them 2 or 3 games all in one by letting 
them bid you up and double you, where you 
have a hand from which it is reasonably cer- 
tain that they cannot win the game. They will 
not double your bid of one; with a good hand 
you will go to 2; but when it comes to 3, stop, 
listen and look at your hand while you ask your- 
self — what will happen if I let them hold their 
bid? 

Do not bid 4 in trumps with 2 losing cards in 
their suit. This caution often applies to a bid 
of 3. To take away the rule, the bidding of 
your partner must be considered carefully and 
the number of losing cards. 

Do Not Change Their Bid If It Suits Your 
Hand. — This is an important rule. Thus the 
dealer bids hearts ; you as second bidder have a 
good suit of hearts and 4 spades to A,Q. It is 



Be a Partner 27 

best to look on those spades as a deterrent to 
their notrump. That is, if you should bid 1 EL 
in the hope of bidding them up and doubling 
them, then the third player with the king of 
spades may have a good notrump shown him by 
your bid. The same rule applies to doubling 
where the effect of the double may be to drive 
them to their best bid. 

Be a Partner. — Any partnership is a disaster 
if there is no confidence. If your partner knows 
that you are a safe bidder, he assists you prop- 
erly and doubles them knowingly; while if he 
thinks that he is in more danger from you than 
he is from them, he cannot play. The first es- 
sential thing is that you shall not think that you 
know it all. If your hand requires assistance, 
and your partner has not assisted you, be 
warned. Take an inventory of the players; 
know their modes of play and as each in turn 
becomes your partner conform to his ideas as 
far as possible. Guard against their bad mode 
of bidding and play, but never criticise it. With 
a partner who is a rash bidder and a poor player 
it is folly to make bids on which there is only 
a fair chance with a good player. Win here 
by actual strength or lose by such safe bids 
that the rubber is small. Give the poor player 
every proper assistance in supporting his bids, 
after you have warned him that yours is not 



28 Auction Bids 

a strong hand, by yonr failure to make a strong 
bid, or by not assisting him till he has bid twice. 
Do not call his attention to any error in his 
play ; particularly a plain downright error from 
want of attention. If he does not see it and you 
stir him up, you will forget his first error when 
you see what he hands you next. 

Dealek^s Notrump Bid. — Eule ; a queen above 
the average ; or 2 aces and a protected suit and 
no better bid shown; or 5 likely tricks and no 
better bid shown. The limit for a notrump bid 
is A,X— K,X,X— Q,10,X— J,9,8,X. Note what 
is said of this hand under the heading Average 
Hands. The beginner is advised to require a 
queen better than this. But this distribution 
favors the absence of freak hands. It is better 
for such a hand to be led to than to be shown on 
the table. Your bid may shut out an informa- 
tory bid or prevent them from calling a no- 
trump where the hands are so divided that 
either side can win the notrump, by the advan- 
tage of seeing the winning combinations. These 
reasons influence many to make such bids that 
their notrump bid is acclaimed as a confession 
of great weakness. The bridge rule — ^beware 
of a one-ace notrump refers to the fact that at 
bridge the declaration is final. At auction the 
bidding often starts with notrump, without an 
ace. Notrump is the safest bid on a doubtful 



Dealer's Notrump Bid 29 

hand. They will not double one notrump; at 
times they bid the suit which you thought of 
bidding, and having to bid 2, you can double 
them. A hand with a trick in every suit is safer 
than more high cards and a missing suit. With 
a missing suit there is the chance that by a 
false bid they may bid up your notrump with a 
sure double from holding a solid suit. As soon 
as you see 2 aces you look carefully for all good 
reasons for a notrump. Three aces are a no- 
trump. 

Seven and six card suit hands. The great 
suit demands a suit bid. A solid suit of clubs or 
diamonds with an outside ace or king-queen is 
a notrump, but with 2 missing suits the alter- 
native bid of the suit is preferred by any good 
players. I prefer the notrump. On such a 
hand if the dummy takes a trick you may go 
game. A single ace is dangerous, particularly 
so if it may take 2 rounds to clear your long 
suit. One spade is often a good bid on these 
unbalanced hands with the intention of bidding 
2 in the suit later, or of going notrump if your 
partner's bid favors. Hands with only 3 suits 
call for a trump bid. With a singleton club or 
diamond, your RL or heart bid may be indi- 
cated; but a singleton heart or spade is often 
an argument for the notrump. With strength 
in clubs and diamonds, the lack of strength in 



30 Auction Bids 

the other suits is not feared anything like so 
much as at bridge. They will bid their good 
EL or heart rather than double your notrump. 
But if the strength is in the high suits, there is 
danger of your partner being deceived by a false 
bid by the second bidder, as of 2 diamonds, hold- 
ing 6 solid clubs. 

Five card suit hands. Two-fifths of all your 
hands will be in a 5 card suit hand. The dis- 
tributions in 1,000 hands are: 5,3,3,2 — 155; 
5,4,3,1—130; 5,4,2,2—106; 5,5,2,1—32; 5,4,4,0— 
12; 5,5,3,0 — 9. Hands with a missing suit are 
their own danger signal. A doubtful choice be- 
tween notrump and a trump in the common com- 
binations is made a trump or a spade bid in the 
uncommon combinations. 

Four card suits hands. More than one-third 
of all your hands will be in a 4 card suit hand ; 
4,4,3,2 ; 4,3,3,3 ; occur 321 times in 1,000 hands ; 
4,4,4,1 only 30 times. In this last there are 3 
chance of helping your partner's trump bid 
and a singleton which may be a great factor. 
The hand being unbalanced for notrump, more 
strength is required than in the common dis- 
tributions. 

A,x,x — K,x,x — Q,10,x — Q,x,x ; 
A,x,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x — ^K,x,x ; 
K,Q,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x — K,x,x. 

These are notrumps and any king may be 



Dealer's Noteump Bid 31 

replaced with Q,J. With one suit unguarded 
there should be a fair chance for 5 tricks and 
the following are limits: 

A,K,x — K,10,x,x — K,x,x — x,x,x ; 

A,x,x — K,Q,x — Q, J,10,x — x,x,x ; 

A,x,x — K,J,10,x — K,x,x — x,x,x. 
EoYALs AND Hearts. — Dcclarc royal or heart 
if you have a sure game in suit and the notrump 
is doubtful. Also, you have the right to bid 
EL or hearts on any hand which looks like game 
by the bid, counting of course on fair help. 
Your partner will take your bid of these suits 
as willingness to play the bid. Bid 2 at once 
with 8. 

Seven and six card suit hands. With 7 to ace 
or king, bid the suit. With 7 to Q, J,10 and out- 
side ace, bid 2. With 7 to Q or J bid 1 spade 
and if your partner goes notrump, bid 2. With 
6 to K,10 and outside ace it seems that the bid 
of the suit is better than the bid of 1 spade, but 
with six to the queen and an outside king, bid 

1 spade and consider bidding the suit on the 
second round. The hand H. Q,J,10,xxx — S. A, 
X — xxx-xx is on the line. It is important for 
the beginner fully to recognize the fact that he 
should not bid at the start on weaker hands 
than these, for many good players bid 1 spade 
on all the foregoing hands, preferring to bid 

2 in the suit on their next bid and thus clearly 



32 Auction Bids 

to show their partner that the suit is long but 
misses some high cards, so that he shall not 
carry the bid to 3 or 4 on anything less than a 
good strong hand. The danger is that with the 
suit as good as above the bid may be up to 2 
notrump when the bid comes back to you. With 
a singleton as H. Q,J,10,xxx — S. A,xxx — D. xx — 
C. X., bid the suit at once. Add another ace, and 
the foregoing is a good bid of 2. With an out- 
side ace and king, RL or heart may be bid on 
any 6 card suit with 2 honors in it. Very unfre- 
quently you will have a hand with both a 6 and 
a 5 card suit and there may be a good bid in the 
5 card suit. Once m. 1,000 times you will have 
6,6,1,0. A complimentary bid of 2 may be con- 
sidered. 

5 card suit hands. H. A,K,x,x,x — K,x,x — 
x,x,x — x,x. Bid 1 heart. So with H. A,Q,x,x,x 
— K,Q,x,x — x,x,x — x; and H. K,Q,J,x,x — S. A, 
X — D. A,x,x — x,x,x. The bridge rule calls for 
a heart on H. K,J,x,x,x — S. A,J,x — D. x,x — C. 
K,x. The bid of 2 spades was made on this 
hand and it happened that the second bidder 
bid a heart and the third bidder bid 2 diamonds, 
upon which the dealer bid 2 notrump, winning 
the game. This instance proves nothing unless 
as an illustration that if you see that you can 
wait, it will sometimes be to your advantage to 
have waited. 



Diamonds and Clubs 33 

Four card suit hand. H. A,K,x,x — A,Q,x,x — 
x,x,x — x,x; H. A,K,10,x — K,Q,x — x,x,x,x — x,x. 
Make these the limit of your EL or heart bid on 
a 4 card suit hand. 

Diamonds and Clubs. — With EL added, D. at 
7 is a much weaker suit than before, as a trump 
suit. But you may be something on the game 
and be willing to play for game in diamonds. 
The trouble is in the 3 higher bids above you. 
Your bid of 1 diamond suggests logically an 
invitation to a notrump. At times you can bid 
2 D., applying the preceding rules. If you bid 
1, 1 take your bid as an invitation to a notrump. 
Consider then what will happen if you bid one 
on 6 or 7 to the Q or worse, as the ludicrous bid 
of 1 D on 5 to the 9 which I saw lately. 

The bid on 3 only A,K,Q and nothing else 
in the hand whatever is not advised. With an 
outside K or as good as that, bid 1 D. D. A,K, 
x — C. K,Q,10,x,x,x,x — ^x,x,x. Bid notrump. 
With A,K,x and outside K, the bid of 1 D. is 
favored by many good players. These would do 
the same with A,K,x,x and nothing else. Analy- 
sis is against the bid and requires as good as a 
guarded king, as is also the case with A,Q,x,x. 
In such a matter the feelings of the players 
with whom you are playing is very controlling. 
If they think that you should show them a suit 
of diamonds or clubs where you hold ace, king 



34 Auction Bids 

and nothing outside ; if they know that 1 D. or 
1 C. bid by you shows tops, this is immeasurably 
better than those bids on a long weak suit. 
Therefore some bid 1 D. or 1 C. when they have 
the ace. With them 1 D. or 1 C. means the ace. 
But I do not wish to invite a notrump with noth- 
ing in my hand but one ace. No doubt it is most 
excellent to be able safely to show an ace. It 
is also most excellent at times to be able to play 
an ace and a high card from a hand which you 
have started as 1 spade. Eemember that no 
law compels you to bid notrump or invite no- 
trump on a hand whose trick making value is 
below the average. The maxim, "If you like 
that kind of hands, that is the kind of hands you 
you will get," fully applies here; because now 
and then, straining your bids and making bids 
against the strength of the pack, something will 
happen which will be remembered long after 
your bids which got something on the game are 
forgotten. If you are some players, so to speak, 
what you say here is — if you only had shown 
me the ace I could have gone notrump and 
would have done well, and you say this even 
though you do not really know what would have 
happened. Pretty soon you are playing with a 
partner who does show you an ace on a weak 
hand and you bid your notrump up to 3 and 
are doubled and down 500. Now you say — of 



Diamonds and Clubs 35 

course I expected that your bid showed good 
help for a notrump. 

A,Q,J,x,x, or K,Q,10,x,x is a real suit which 
should be shown. So K,Q,x,x,x and outside A. 
With outside ace and guarded king and 5 D. or 
C. to Q,J,10,x,x, bid 1 notrump. 

With 6 to A,Q show the suit; with 6 to K,J,10, 
x,x,x and nothing else, how can you invite a 
notrump ? Certainly you would like to play the 
suit but not to pay penalties for a hand which 
may not have a trick in it. 

With 7 clubs to A,K,10, a bid of 2 clubs would 
be made at the old values. Now the bid takes 
2 notrump. With this, bid 2 in diamonds or 
clubs if you are along on the score. At love all 
a bid of 1 is better as giving you more good 
positions to show this hand later. Thus one club 
— ^no — 1 notrump — ^no — 2 clubs. This shows 
that you are all clubs. 

Attention has been directed to the fighting 
qualities of these suits in bidding up the enemy, 
making them choose between doubling you or 
making an unsafe bid. Particularly notice that 
the bid of 3 diamonds requires a bid of 3 in each 
higher bid and that if you have good diamonds 
the bid is a very safe one, assuming that your 
partner with only a fair hand will recognize it 
as a legitimate bidding up and will not think 
that he should bid 4 diamonds against their 



36 Auction Bids 

strong bids. The 2 and particularly the 3 club 
bid will be found at times most serviceable in 
forcing up their bids. If your partner has bid 
anything and you have a solid suit of clubs, you 
may bid 4 clubs against their 3 in hearts or dia- 
monds, but be careful to note that 4 clubs does 
not beat 3 EL, although 4 diamonds does. 

The Bid of the Second Biddee. — Eule. Bid 
very strong hands and good invitation hands. 
Pass hands merely fair. A common and costly 
error is to bid 2 on a long weak suit of 6, against 
a notrump. If the dealer is a rash bidder his 
spade bid shows great weakness. With the 
strength of the pack between three players, you 
need a good hand. But the dealer may be a 
good player playing a sly fox against such as 
you. One spade — 1 H. — no — 1 EL ; 1 notrump — 
2 H. — ^no — 2 EL; 2 notrump — no — no — double; 
— ^no — ^no — 3 diamonds? — double. The folly of 
the partner ruins the coup. The dealer had 8 
sure tricks at notrump but did not redouble be- 
cause he was satisfied with the position. 

Eemember that you are not compelled to bid. 
If you have a good notrump, bid it. Do not bid 
a long ragged suit "to show it." The enemy 
has the first use of this information. One spade 
— no. This refusal does not deny some strength. 
One spade — double. One spade — 2 spades. 
Each of these bids invites a notrump and shows 



The Bid of the Second Bidder 37 

strength in spades, not enough for EL. The 
first bid leaves the bid with the leader and re- 
quires his partner to make some bid. The dou- 
ble says that he can take care of the spade suit ; 
the 2 spades says that he has a subsidiary no- 
trump. The advantage of the above bids with 
a weak notrump is to regulate the ardor of 
your partner in going up to 3 or 4 notrump. 
One spade — 1 diamond. A bid of diamonds or 
clubs suggests a notrump, or if the third bid- 
der bids notrump, the bid afiQrms that the suit 
is so strong that your partner felt bound to 
show it to direct the lead at notrump. Two 
spades — ^notrump. You must see a strong no- 
trump here, with spades protected. One no- 
trump — 2 notrump. You will not permit the 
dealer to take away your good notrump when 
you have a very strong hand with all the suits 
protected. One heart — one EL. This declara- 
tion inaugurates the war of these two strong 
suits and leads to many interesting positions. 
Inasmuch as he has made a strong bid you 
must see a good strong hand in your bid. So 
when he has bid EL. for here you have to bid 
2 hearts. If he makes either bid, your bid of 
2 in clubs or diamonds is a strong invitation to 
a notrump, provided that your partner is pro- 
tected against their bid. If the dealer is a poor 
bidder and has made what will be taken by his 



38 AucTioisr Bids 

partner as an invitation bid and you have high 
cards in his bid, it may be well to give the third 
bidder a chance to make his error; to be in a 
position to support your partner's bid and then 
double their final bid of 3 or 4. With any game 
winning hand, make your bid. The rules for the 
declaration of the dealer apply on his spade bid, 
with the modification that inasmuch as you are 
not compelled to bid, and the third hand is very 
likely to bid, you may have a fine opportunity by 
keeping quiet and with a singleton or other 
weakness, you may prefer to hear his bid and 
to see what your partner will do. This quies- 
cence may be carried too far. Thus in a hand 
recently commented on at length in a news- 
paper, it is taken as a matter of course that the 
second bidder should pass the bid of 1 spade, 
holding H. K,x,x,x — C. x — D. A,K,x,x — S. A,Q, 
J,x. The hand is a notrump with 3 better bids 
than a pass in it. The hand illustrates that so- 
called illustrative hands often illustrate that 
particular deal and nothing else ; for it is given 
as an instance of the folly of the third bidder in 
bidding diamonds on D. Q,J,10,9,5— S. K,9— H. 
J,10,9 — C, A,K, J. The argument was made that 
he should have allowed the spade to stand, be- 
cause in this particular deal the dealer had no 
card above a 10 and the second bidder had 
passed a notrump. Give the dealer the king of 



The Bid of the Third Bidder 39 

diamonds and let the fourth bidder call notrump 
and the hand would be given as an example of 
the benefit of showing your suit. The hand is 
a notrump, with the excuse for the diamond 
bid that it is the suit that you wish to have led 
at notrump. 

Against the notrump, an excellent bid of the 
second bidder with a solid suit of 6 clubs or 
diamonds is to bid 2 in some other suit and 
double their 2 notrump. You must make this 
bid once in a while so that they may be in fear 
of it. When the game was new this device went 
fairly well, but now good players will let you 
have any bid of 2 if it suits their hand and will 
not double you, knowing that you have a way 
out. If the trap has been spread in vain in the 
sight of any birds, still they remain timid. 

The Bid of the Third Bidder. — Where the 
dealer has bid spades and the second bidder has 
passed, you require a good strong hand in order 
to bid. Bid for game on any very strong hand. 
Bid any good notrump or really good suit of 
royals or hearts in a strong hand. Or you may 
have so strong a suit in clubs or diamonds that 
you wish your partner to lead it to you in case 
the fourth bidder bids notrump ; or at the score 
you may have a game hand in clubs or diamonds. 
With the enhanced values of these suits, a bid 
at the score may be indicated and there is no 



40 Auction Bids 

danger of misleading your partner such as there 
would have been on the dealer's bid. The hand 
previously given : d,q,j, 10,9,5 ; s,k,9 ; h,i,10,9 ; c,a, 
k,j, is a good diamond bid at 16; at love-all a 
notrump is better ; in fact, notrump is the best 
bid at any score. Such a hand asks a bid, be- 
cause it is strong enough to force them up to 
3 if you begin with the diamond and your part- 
ner has the king. Diamonds and clubs have the 
advantage in bidding 3, that it is very seldom 
that they are doubled; even with the ace king, 
one hesitates to double, because the double may 
double them out; and because a large penalty 
means the loss of a game hand ; and a small pen- 
alty is no better than the score on the winning 
hand. Where the dealer has bid clubs or dia- 
monds and the second bidder has passed, you 
are interested to know what sort of a partner 
has bid. The whole scheme of your bidding may 
turn on your ability to rely on his having shown 
you a high card. For this reason we have in- 
sisted that he should not bid one on a long suit 
to the queen. Accepting his bid of 2 spades, 
one club, or one diamond, as showing a subsidi- 
ary notrump, bid no trump on any fair no- 
trump unless a strong suit bid is shown and 
which looks even better for game. Notrump — 
2 hearts. With a long solid suit of clubs or 
diamonds and no trick in their bid, you must 



The Bid of the Foxjeth Bidder 41 

bid 3 in your suit. One heart — no — one EL) ; or 
one RL — no — 2 hearts. The change from the 
one to the other of these good suits shows that 
you are strong here, but that your hand is weak 
in his suit. So if you call 2 hearts or royals 
over his notrump, he should not disturb this 
bid. Notrump — ^no — 2 notrump. This bid 
shows a very strong hand and seeks to prevent 
the fourth bidder from showing a suit. 

The Bid op the Fourth Bidder. — Here as al- 
ways, the very strong hands play themselves 
out, with the additional advantage of having 
heard three declarations. 1 spade — no — ^no — 
no. With a weak notrump, let the spade stand. 
You are not likely to go game and a trap may 
have been set. If you know that there is no 
trap, if your partner is conservative and the 
enemies bid on anything, you are safe in bidding 
notrump without looking. 

A very strong hand is required to overcall 
their notrump bid with 2 notrump, especially 
so, if the dealer started with a club or diamond. 
Unless the suit first bid is protected for 2 tricks, 
it is likely that, with a very strong hand, you 
have a better 2 suit bid, and that your play is 
to bid 2 in the suit and double their 3 notrump. 

Does my partner invite a notrump? Objec- 
tion has been made to the term — Invitation, but I 
take the above question to mean — Has my part- 



42 Auction Bids 

ner given me such information of strength that 
this information with my hand invites a no- 
trump? In deciding this, distinguish between 
a forced bid and a free bid. If the dealer has 
bid 1 H and my partner bids 2 diamonds, the 
score may be such that he is willing to play 
2 diamonds. My support for his bid may be 
so strong that I am willing to see the diamonds 
at 4 diamonds. Ordinarily these lower suit bids 
indicate a subsidiary notrump; often they are 
made on what would be a fine notrump except 
for the fact that it is not protected in the ene- 
mies' declared suit. With a weak notrump, 
which is protected in their suit, you should call 
a notrump or 2 notrump if your partner's bid 
indicates that he can help a notrump; for he 
should not make a bid open to this construction 
except on a hand which will support your no- 
trump well, provided that you can stop their 
suit. But he may have been trying to bid them 
up. Good players use every reasonable oppor- 
tunity of forcing up the adversaries. Often it 
happens that the position obtained by bidding 
them up will win penalties and that was what 
you were after ; but your partner rushes in with 
a higher bid and the enemy get the penalties. 
These things must happen ; if they did not, if a 
sure rule could be laid down, there would be 
no game. If you can win 2 out of 3 positions, 



The Bid op the Fourth Bidder 43 

the difference is the value of a rubber. To do 
this your first rule should be — Sometimes I am 
ivilling to keep still. I am not willing to give 
up a game winning hand, but why should I take 
great risks with a doubtful hand? Often also 
the 4th bidder incurs a great penalty by an in- 
judicious attempt to bid up the dealer's no- 
trump. Some players if they have 5 to the q 
or j will bid to force up the bid. At times they 
bid directly into the dealer's great suit and are 
doubled at once. Of if they escape this and 
the dealer bids 2 notrump, their partner goes to 
3 in the suit and now there is a double and great 
loss. If you find that you are playing in bad 
luck and that you incur some bad penalties 
pretty often, consider trying a change. Try the 
plan of not bidding except on hands which you 
see to be really good or to have great possibil- 
ities in them. All the winning cards are some- 
wheres and the winning combinations are innu- 
merable. Therefore if you cannot see any game 
winning combination, after assuming, as you 
should assume, that your partner will give you 
some help, at least 1 trick and probably 2, or a 
hand with several picture cards in it, — count 
that hand as in fact a weak hand. It is a hand 
much below the strength of one-fourth of the 
pack, now that they are bidding. You will lose 
heavily in the long run if you invite your part- 



44 Auction Bids 

ner to assist you on such hands. Suppose that 
they let you have your bid for 3 times and that 
at each time you win it, but do not go game. 
Then they would not have gone game either. 
The next time you lose a heavy penalty and are 
behind on the score. A good player cares lit- 
tle for a score in a hand where he cannot go 
game and where he sees such cards that they 
cannot go game. Be awake to the chances which 
are given by an unusual distribution of the 
cards. In a sense these unusual distributions 
may be called usual distributions; that is, the 
persistent bidding of one suit against another 
suit ordinarily occurs in unbalanced hands and 
in such bidding, now that the unusual hands 
have come along, it is usual that they bring 
singletons and short suits with them, and they 
may bring a hand with only 3 suits in it. If you 
have none in their suit, or a singleton in it, 
the reason for assisting your partner's bid is 
greatly increased. 

Continuing the Bidding. — The first consid- 
eration is, CAN THEY WIN THE GAME ON 
THEIR BID! If it is pretty certain that they 
cannot, some good reason must appear for giv- 
ing them a chance to change their bid, or for 
trying to run up their bid. Your controlling 
reason is a very strong hand, or one which 
may become so if played in your bid. 



The Warning to the Partner 45 

Does Their Bid Suit My Hand? — Then do 
not change it without a very good reason. If 
your partner bids and they bid again, you will 
be able to double. 

The Warning to the Partner. — 1 notrump — 
no — 2 H. Any bid which cuts down the value 
of your partner's bid is a strong warning that 
his bid does not suit your hand. You tell him 
that the hand must be played in your suit. 
This may be because the bid makes your hand 
a game hand; but the ordinary case is where 
your hand is worthless on his bid and you bid 
2 in the longest suit in it. You do this because 
you expect a bid from the last bidder, which 
will cause your partner to raise his bid and 
be doubled with great loss. He is required by 
your bid to stop his bidding unless he has such 
a hand that he is willing to play it without a 
trick from you. He must assume on this bid 
that you can take no trick. Therefore you 
should not interpose such a bid on a good sup- 
porting hand which you think will be better in 
your suit. 

Recently, I saw the following bidding: 1 
spade — ^no — ^no — ^notrump ; no — 2 diamonds — ^no 
— 2 hearts; no — 3 diamonds — ^no — ^no. The 3 
diamond hand was D,8,x,x,x,x,x, S,8,x,x,x, C,q, 
x,x, H, none. 

The partner's hand was D, AK — S, AKQx — 



46 Auction Bids 

H, J1098X— C, Ax. The 2 heart bid was folly. 
A small slam was obtained in diamonds. 

Some poor players appreciate such a rule only 
to the extent of applying it where it does not 
apply. Thus — ^notrump — 2 diamonds — 2 hearts 
— on a worthless suit of 6 hearts. Any bid over 
the second bidder must show actual strength in 
the bid and is taken as an invitation to go on 
with the notrump, if the first bidder has protec- 
tion in the suit bid against him; or to support 
the last bid if it suits his hand. 

Numerical Formulas for Assisting. — The 
only valid numerical formula is the arithmetic 
which counts the winning and the losing tricks ; 
having reference to the distribution of the 
cards; the possibilities of a long suit; the ad- 
vantages of a singleton and the support given 
to the hand by the queens, jacks and lO's in it. 
If your hand counts up to only 2 likely tricks, 
it is a weak hand at auction and to support 
the bid invites the partner to go on to 3 or 4 
and sure disaster. The lowest limit on which 
you may assist the bid is an outside ace and 
king and an honor in his suit. If the hand counts 
only 2 tricks without an honor above the 10 
in his suit, pass the bid. At any time when you 
see that your hand is on the line or fairly be- 
low the expectation which any good partner has 
in making his bid, pass. But as soon as your 



Assisting Bid of 2 47 

hand gets into the rank of a strong supporting 
hand with plenty of cards in his suit and an 
outside ace and king and a singleton in their 
suit, you can keep on supporting and do not 
need any numerical formula. 

The Assisting Bid of 2 By the Dealer's 
Partner. — Notrump — 2 hearts — 2 notrump. 
This immediate bid indicates a sure trick in 
their suit and more than 2 tricks in the hand. 
If you have a solid suit and nothing in their 
bid, bid 3 in your suit. At the old values you 
were forced to go on with the notrump, but 
now the suit may be shown. With no trick in 
their bid, you must not support the notrump, 
at this stage, unless you see so many good 
cards that it is folly for your partner to go on 
with these cards against him. Poor bidders 
make a great error here. They have a long 
suit of 6 or 7 and so bad a hand that if the 
second bidder had not bid they would have 
known that they should bid the suit. They bid 
2 or 3 in the worthless suit, encouraging the 
partner to bid up his notrump. You must ex- 
pect on your immediate assistance that your 
partner will carry his notrump to 3 certainly; 
to 4 probably; and to 5 possibly, if he has a 
good strong hand. Never encourage him to do 
this with a hand which only doubtfully supports 
the bid. 



48 Auction Bids 

One heart — one RL — 2 hearts. You must 
have strong outside support here to assist with- 
out a good honor in hearts. A hand which may 
take several tricks. "With good cards in their 
suit and weak in his, pass. Unusual distribu- 
tions will give reasons for assisting or not as- 
sisting. A singleton in their suit is a strong 
argument. But the rule is that he will bid 2 
in his suit even if you pass, unless there is 
very considerable strength in your hand. Here 
you will prefer 2 notrump if you have a trick 
in their suit. In some way you must show him 
a good strong hand. With a fair hand, the 
difficulty is that he will take your immediate 
support to indicate a good honor in his suit and 
something outside and it may be that, if you 
have a good honor, his hand shows almost a 
slam. To avoid the great loss impending from 
his overbidding, it is safer on a fair hand, with- 
out a good honor in his suit, to assume that 
he will bid 2 even if you pass. 

But supposing that the fourth bidder is the 
one who has bid and that the dealer has passed. 
You need actual strength in his suit to assist 
and some good outside cards if it is a trump 
bid. In notrump you must have a sure trick 
in their suit and one sure trick besides; and 
something more than this. Where are all the 
queens and jacks and 10s? Is there no suit in 



The Dealer's Second Bid 49 

which you can fairly figure some probable 
tricks 1 If not, the hand is weak and the bidding 
must stop. 

The Dealer's Second Bid. — Notrump. When 
you have bid on a hand little better than aver- 
age, bid no more. Notrump — no — ^no — 2. With 
protection against the bid, go on with a good 
notrump where you see 6 tricks. Notrump — 2 
diamonds — no — no. Let them have the bid, un- 
less you have a good notrump, for your part- 
ner's failure to make any bid here argues a 
bad hand. If the second hand bids, and your 
partner bids another suit, he is actually strong 
in that suit. If your hand helps his bid well, 
let it stand; with little in his suit and a sure 
trick in their suit, continue the notrump. 

Trumps — 1 EL — 2 hearts — no — no, 2rl. Any 
hand good enough to bid 1 rl or heart on is 
good enough for 2, according to the rule of most 
players. A good player starts with one spade 
in those ragged hands where the effect of the 
bid is to tell the second player that he holds 
over the hand ; so that if he has a notrump, he 
bids and plays with certainty, or if long in your 
suit bids something else and then doubles. You 
may have bid with 4 trmnps and here if your 
partner does not support you, it will take a 
very strong hand to continue. Did I bid the 
full strength at the start? Always ask this 



50 Auction Bids 

where the fourth bidder bids. I do not bid 
rl, or h, to show an ace, but I tell my partner 
that I am willing to play the bid. If I pass he 
still knows this. Therefore my immediate bid 
of 2 tells him that I am stronger than my first 
bid. Then why did not I bid 2 at the start? It 
seems that I might well have done it; for now 
they have shown a suit which is going to take 
us up to 3 or 4. No ; my hand is 5 good trumps 
and such outside strength that it would help a 
notrump well; I bid 2 now because I am short 
in their suit and my hand is a good playing 
hand. The line seems to be at 5 trumps to 
the ace, king, 10 and an outside ace. This hand 
indicates that no wooden rule can be laid down. 
If I bid 2 on this, they will not double and are 
almost certain to go 3. But do I wish my part- 
ner to go 3 or 4? It seems well to continue 
the bid with such strength in trumps that there 
is no danger of a double. If you have 6 trumps 
and a singleton in their suit, you must go on. 

The Assisting Bid of 3 By the Dealer's 
Partner. — This bid should show at least 2 likely 
tricks and there should be some further reason, 
such as a singleton in their suit, or possibilities 
in a suit. In the contest between EL and hearts, 
the third bidder requires a hand short in their 
bid and actually strong by the partner's bid. 
The bid should show 3 tricks outside the trumps, 



Bids of 4 and 5 51 

if you have had an opportunity to assist at 2 and 
have not done so. In this case, the bid denies 
any solid suit, because you could have shown 
this suit on the first round. On the rubber 
game, with nothing. in their suit, there is excuse 
for supporting the dealer, both at 2 and at 3, 
on any hand that looks as if it might help him 
fairly well. Here much depends on the kind of 
a partner that you have. Never fly any flag. 
Always have a good reason for your support. 
It is assumed that you always support him 
where you see such strong cards that failure 
to support him ought to make him stop bid- 
ding. 

Bids of 4 and 5. — There is always an uncom- 
mon distribution of cards when you get up to 
a bid of 4 or 5. If your hand does not show a 
singleton in their suit the chances of the bidding 
are against you. And they are greatly against 
you if your partner is a rash bidder who will 
support your bid with 2 or 3 small trumps sim- 
ply because he has some strong outside cards. 
For this reason, we have advised that the im- 
mediate assisting bid of your partner should 
show a good honor in your suit and good out- 
side support. If he bids like this you may 
safely go to 4 or at times 5 with a singleton 
in their suit and a very strong hand ia the bid, 



52 Auction Bids 

noiv that you know that he has an honor in it. 
The variety of assisting hands is greater than 
any single rule; he might have 5 little trumps 
and none of their suit, etc., etc., but his im- 
mediate support alleges strong help. If you 
raise your bid once, but have 2 or 3 in their 
suit, this is probably as high as you should 
go. The bid now is with your partner. He 
will go on with a strong supporting hand and 
none in their suit or a singleton in it. Such 
hands ordinarily have all of 2 suits with them 
and all of the other 2 suits with you and your 
partner; or such great length in a second suit 
and shortness in their suits that the chance of 
the high bid is good. They are marked by un- 
usual distributions of the cards. It is necessary 
that you should be able to get in the lead 
promptly ; for they will surely trump your side 
suit. Thus if your trumps are without the ace, 
and you have a long suit besides, they will 
double; will lead off their singletons. There 
are many recorded cases of 500 lost here, where 
the dealer would have made his bid if he had 
had the first lead. 

Bidding Against Their First Strong Bid. — 
This takes a strong hand. The interesting bid- 
ding is in the hearts against the royals. Your 
bid is here a forced bid and may be on 6 or 



Bid Them Up 53 

7 hearts or royals with a singleton in their 
suit, with, of course, some good cards besides, 
but not good help for a notrump. Your bid 
of 2 in clubs or diamonds is a forced bid in 
the sense that, if you bid them here, you must 
bid 2. But why bid themf Surely not because 
of great length to the queen or even k, j. 

Bid Them Up. — Consider the weak notrumps 
that are bid ; you will have no hesitation in bid- 
ding two in suit on any good hand. And when 
your partner does this, remember that his bid 
is in the nature of a forced bid; possibly for 
the sake of bidding them up and doubling them. 
Do not raise his bid to 3 without actual help. 
Any strong hand that you would be willing to 
start with a strong bid as dealer, calls for a bid 
of 2. Those long six and seven-card suits call 
for such a bid and often with a singleton in 
their suit may be taken up to 3. But do not 
bid simply for the sake of bidding them up; 
the weaker your hand is the greater is the dan- 
ger that your partner with some high cards 
may take you to 3 or 4, which you can never 
make. Do not underrate good adversaries. They 
know what you are trying to do. Do not run 
them up without a hand that has a fighting 
chance in the bid. Your great aid here is in 
the clubs and diamonds, which often are worth 



54 Auction Bids 

a bid of 3. Especially is the. bid of 3 diamonds 
a trying bid for them against their bid of 2 
notrnmp. Seven diamonds to the K,Q and an 
outside ace is a great hand for the third bidder 
to bid up to 3 because you are almost certain 
to establish it by the benefit of the first lead, 
With any suit, you are willing to bid as third 
hand, without anything else, for the sake of 
having your partner lead it against their no- 
trump. Therefore you will bid them up, with 
a good strong hand; with a hand made strong 
by your bid ; or with a suit as third hand which 
should be shown against their notrump. Also as 
second hand where the dealer has called hearts 
or royals at the score of 16 or 24 against you 
and you have strength in his suit, you will look 
for an alternative bid to force him up, for it is 
likely that he expects to make 2. Assuming that 
you have a suit against their suit so as to bid 
them up to 3, can you double them, or should 
you bid 4, or should you remain quiet? If it is 
a fighting hand it is a great advantage to have 
the chance of setting them back. You need five 
tricks. If you double them have they a way 
out? If your bidding is on clubs and diamonds, 
they may have a better bid. This is not likely 
and if they have bid 3 notrump you have a free 
double. 



1 


2 


3 


H.A.X.X. 


H.10.9.8.X. 


H.Q.J.x.x. 


S,x.x.x. 


S.A.lO.x.x. 


S.K.Q.J.9. 


D.K.Q.x.x. 


D.A.X. 


D. 


C.K.10.X. 


C.J.X.X. 


C.Q.9.8.X.X. 



Bid 4 55 

The reader is asked to criticise the follow- 
ing actual bidding: 

4 
H.K.x. 
S.X.X. 

D.J.10.9.8.X.X.X. 
C.A.X. 

Notrump — No — No — 2 diamonds : — No — No — 2 
royal — 3 diamonds. — : Double — Eedouble — No — No : 
— 3 Notrump — Double — No — No. 

Slight changes in the foregoing will supply 
illustrations of the possibilities of the fighting 
diamonds. Consider what are the smallest 
changes required to make each bid a win- 
ning bid. 

Bid 4. Any One Can Always Make 4. — This 
maxim is equally true with the maxim — No one 
ever made 4 — in the positions to which each 
applies; 2 solid suits against 2 solid suits may 
be a grand slam for either declarer. Therefore 
with less than this a 4 trick situation is often 
shown and wherever you see it, proceed with 
the bid, although your partner has doubled them. 
Thus my partner bids 1 royal where he might 
well have bid 2, holding 6 to a,k,q; 4 diamonds 
to k,q,j,x, and only one heart. The bidding 
was 1 rl — 2 h — 2 rl — no; No — 3 h — no — ^no; 3 
rl — 4 h — double — ^no. Note the bad effect of my 
immediate support and my double; thus leading 



56 Auction Bids 

my partner to think that we had a great penalty. 
I had 4 spades to the 10, the ace of their suit 
and another ace and it was the rubber game. 
I got those 2 aces and much talk from my part- 
ner on the occasion of their takiag 11 tricks; 
for the declarer did not have a spade in his 
hand. Obviously, the dealer should have gone 
to 4 royals. His hand is dominated by a suit ; 
it looks like 9 tricks; my support indicates 
more than one trick; in fact he has 11 tricks. 
With any such hand, count all your winning 
tricks, add 2 for your partner's support and 
bid the full strength thus shown. 

Double Them. No One Ever Made 4. — He 
never made 4 or even 3 where his partner de- 
ceived him by his bad bid or his bad support 
and this fact was plain to the adversaries. Thus 
in the following game, the dealer bid one club 
on 6 to the q,j,10 and the ace of hearts. 

1 club 1 heart 1 royal 2 hearts. 
No No 2 royal double 

2 notrump 3 hearts 3 notrump No 
No double No No 

The doubling hand was h,k,j,10,x,x,x, s,x,x, — d, 
q,x,x,x, — c, ace. The doubler was sure that his 
partner would not have supported his first bid 
of hearts without an honor in it. This hand is 
a good illustration of the advantage of playing 



Double Them 57 

as a partnership. The partner's double of the 
royal suggests that he may have interposed a 
false bid in hearts in order to bid up the royals 
and then double. The partnership rules previ- 
ously given exclude this bad chance and insure 
small losses and great penalties. The false bid 
was the original club bid which led to a 3 no- 
trump and a great penalty. Note also that the 
double here was a free double; that is if they 
made their bid they were out anyhow. Beware 
of doubling where the effect of the doubling is 
to double them out if they win their bid. Poor 
adversaries give you exact information by their 
bids and make your double a certainty. Here 
your winning doubles are simple gifts. Against 
good players the case is very different; here 
your double is indicated by unusual hands, by 
something which no good player playing against 
you is likely to count on. I have seen a fine 
player redouble a doubled 2 notrump with noth- 
ing in his hand but 2 four card suits to the 
jack, because he was sure that the doubler ex- 
pected to lead off a solid suit which was stopped 
by his jack. The situation also occurs that 
against your partner's notrump bid they bid 2 
in a suit in which you have 4 or 5 with tenaces 
over the bidder. Now the question is — Is this 
a true bid, or has he a solid suit and a way out 
if you double him; and a sure double if you 



58 Auction Bids 

bid 2 notrumps? This is an annoying question. 
If he is a player whose bids are always guar- 
antees of good faith, it may be well to double 
him and by this information to allow your part- 
ner to go out with his notrump, if he thinks 
best. But if he is a shrewd player and you 
have missing suits, let his bid stand. Do not 
double any bid of one, except one spade. If 
your partner bids 2 and is doubled, do not take 
him out on a worthless suit. Do not double 
when the effect may be to drive them into a 
suit where you have no strength and which 
your partner would have called if he had it, or 
into a notrump which you cannot defend nearly 
so well as against their bid. Where you have 
the option of a sure double or a sure game, 
take the game unless you are reasonably sure 
that they are down for 300. If they are bidding 
so badly as that, they will bid worse. In these 
cases, however, it is well to notice a fault of 
over-estimating one's own game; a position 
which is arrived at by under-estimating at times 
the ability of a poor player to know a good 
hand when it is looking at him. A good player 
gives away his advantage when he overbids his 
hand, relying upon his skill to take the place of 
the necessary tricks. 

In considering a double of their bid of 3 in 
suit, remember that you must take 5 tricks. 



Play of the Doubled Hands 59 

not 4. If their bid does not take them out, 
you are giving great odds on your ability to 
take the 5th trick. 

Play of the Doubled Hands. — The question 
of doubling is influenced by the question of how 
the hands will be played. Notrump — 2 hearts 
— 2 notrump — double. Lead your suit. No- 
trump — 2 hearts — no — ^no; 2 notrump — ^no — ^no 
— double. Here one would think that he should 
be willing to have me lead a club; for he has 
not supported the bid. If your suit is to the 
k,q,j, or k,q,10, lead it; but if there is a tenace 
as a,q,j,x,x, or k,j, it may be well to put him in 
with a club, to lead through the declarer. 



1 spade 


no 


1 royal 


2 hearts 


no 


no 


2 royal 


3 hearts 


no 


no 


3 royal 


no 


no 


4 hearts 


no 


no 


4 royal 


no 


no 


Double 



Lead a trump. The bid of the dealer on the last 
round shows that he has none of your suit, or 
only one. If you have ace, king, in a third suit, 
lead that before the trump and see the dummy. 
If the first declarer can have 2 solid suits for all 
of your hand, better not double. The declarer 
did not go to 4, because of losing cards, perhaps 
3 in your suit. You lead the trump; his trump 
suit is solid ; dummy has 3 trumps and a single- 



60 Auction Bids 

ton in your suit. The declarer is obliged to 
lead your suit ; you lead trumps again ; the dum- 
my gets but one ruff and the bid is set. The 
play of hands doubled and redoubled is ex- 
ecrable. In no place is knowledge of the prob- 
able combinations more necessary or more dis- 
regarded. The uncommon distribution in your 
hand and the uncommon bids argue an uncom- 
mon distribution elsewhere. Well, what do you 
think it is? What have you a right to expect! 
The ordinary player, having no idea on the sub- 
ject, fails of seeing where his necessary 
trick is; figuring on common plays for 
uncommon hands, he starts wrong. Next 
he makes ludicrous errors, because he is 
confused by the redouble. But I have repeat- 
edly seen experienced players lose the game 
here, because they were ignorant of the rule that 
where the trumps lie between two opposing plaj^- 
ers and the bid is doubled and redoubled, the 
players wins who gets the first ruff. For, other- 
wise, he will have one trump too many and will 
be obliged to lead to a tenace, with the loss of the 
trick on which the game turns. If this situation 
is likely to happen and you hold over the de- 
clarer's trumps, or have 5 or 6 trumps with a 
tenace in them, think at the outset whether you 
will not make him take too many tricks in trumps 
by forcing him at the start. Consider what will 



Peculiarities op Auction Play 61 

happen if you make him force you first or lead 
into your hand as he will be obliged to do, if he 
remains with all his trumps. When you see 
this impending situation, lead a singleton, or 
open a short suit. Lead off at once all the 
winning cards in your short suits; completely 
reversing the play of ordinary hands. It will 
be understood that if you have only 4 trumps 
and a good suit you must force the declarer. 
This is the usual case which every good player 
knows. He is not so apt to recognize the case 
of the uncommon hands, so that the rule above 
laid down is fortified by many impressive in- 
stances in actual play. 

Peculiarities of Auction Play. — There is 
worse play at auction than at bridge. The de- 
clarer falls one trick short of winning the game 
which he could have won; the players fail to 
save the game. A difference of more than 1,000 
points has been made by the failure of the 
declarer to lay down the winning card. Hands 
which do not win the game count for little. Let 
him have his bid if he cannot go out; let him 
win his bid if you can save the game ; are con- 
trolling principles in doubtful hands. One rea- 
son for bad play is that so many suits are 
shown that the position of the cards is marked. 
Also a winning position is at once indicated. 
We must lose the game ; why count all the cards ? 



62 Auction Bids 

I must win; why figure for one more trick? In- 
fluenced by this ease, attention is relaxed; a 
trick is lost here and there because there are 
enough tricks remaining. This is all very well 
for that hand, but the play runs over into the 
hands where attention is necessary at every 
card played. The player becomes careless about 
counting closely. Thus recently at notrump, I 
led a low card, showing 4. My partner has 4 
and the dummy has 2. How many does he 
think that the declarer has ? He plays the whole 
game on the theory that the declarer may have 
4 and that it is necessary to lead twice across 
the declarer. My partner wins with the ace. 
He had a 8,7,6, and returned the 8. He should 
have led me the 6 ; for I cannot tell but that the 
declarer has all the rest. The declarer had k,3,x, 
and takes with the king ; leads 2 rounds of clubs 
and puts me in on the third round. My partner 
has to discard. The dummy hand is weak, 
but has queen third in spades. They are 
down if I go on with my suit. He throws 
the 8 of spades ordering me to lead across that 
queen. I am very willing to do this because I 
have the jack of spades. Even this would have 
done well enough if he had passed the jack. 
But, no, he plays the ace and returns the dia- 
mond, losing the game at the score. He said, 
I had to signal in spades and to go right up 



Peculiaeities of Auction Play 63 

with my ace in order to lead througli his hand 
if he had the jack and one diamond. This part- 
ner did not play his bridge hands so badly. This 
hand is such an instructive hand for the begin- 
ner that it is well to give his cards — d, a,8,7,6 — 
c,x,x, — ^h,k,j,x, — S5a,10,8,x. "When he took with 
the ace of diamonds on the first trick, he 
should have returned the lowest. When he came 
to discard he should have discarded the 7, thus 
showing me that he had 4 originally, because 
he plays them up from the bottom, or he might 
have thrown the lowest heart if he feared that 
my suit was only jack high and wished to be 
sure of a trick more in it. He should have 
played to make it as easy for me as possible 
to lead off my queen. 

The rule is to lead to your partner's bid. 
Therefore when my partner has supported my 
bid and yet opens another suit, it follows that 
he has led a singleton. In this position, if I 
think I know it all and distrust my partner, 
I will lead off the ace of my suit when I get in 
the lead instead of returning his lead ; they will 
trump that ace and will prevent him from mak- 
ing his low trump and thus saving the game. 
The trouble is that some players will try for 
a ruff in a 2 card suit, instead of leading to 
their partner's bid. This play is indefensible. 

The rules of dummy play hereafter given re- 



64 Auction Bids 

quire careful study on the part of the begin- 
ner; particularly so of the tables which sum- 
marize many chapters of discussion and which 
should be sorted out and considered in each 
case. For, all rules of play are based on com- 
mon sense ; if you know the principle by actual 
trial of it, you will be in a position to apply 
it. The old dummy rule — Lead through the 
strength; lead up to the weak — often is appli- 
cable. Thus, at a critical juncture, the recollec- 
tion of the bidding points out to you that the 
declarer's hand must be weak in a suit ; because 
his partner bid that suit and he did not support 
that bid, but changed to another bid, obviously 
not so good if he had strength in his partner's 
bid. In the next place, remember that in a 
hand where there is a contest, it often is better 
to let them make at the start the tricks that 
they must make. A poor player winning the 
first trick and seeing the dummy with a sure 
trick in the partner's suit, changes the suit where 
if he had gone on he would have cleared the 
suit for his partner, besides making 2 tricks 
in the second suit instead of establishing it for 
the declarer. The situation is common that the 
honors in a suit are so divided that whoever 
opens that suit loses a trick. Next, a common 
fault is taking away your partner's lead im- 
necessarily in order to save the game by lead- 



Peculiarities of Auction Play 65 

ing off the ace of the suit which you have bid, 
where your partner is so long in that suit that 
he can count the declarer as having none of it 
and is running to save the game. But the great 
losses come from carelessness. I have seen a 
distinguished jurist lose 5 tricks in his 7 card 
suit at notrump where he was in the lead on 
the third trick and the suit had gone around 
twice. His highest card in the suit was a 9; 
he had not noticed the fall of the 10 and was 
sure that somehow or other that card was out 
against him and he had no possible entry. Ee- 
cently I saw a fair player call notrump with 7 
diamonds to the ace, king; the ace of a second 
suit and the king of a third suit. Dummy put 
down nothing except 3 diamonds to the jack, 10, 
2. Their first lead took out his ace. He led 
the ace and king of diamonds and caught the 
queen. But on his first lead he had played the 
2 of diamonds from the dummy, thus blocking 
his great suit, so that he took only 4 tricks. The 
real teacher would be the one who could teach 
us — not how to play those hands, which are due 
to happen once every year or two, but — ^how to 
avoid those errors which are made all the time 
by those who have played whist all their lives 
and can tell you every rule in every book. 



DUMMY PLAY 

The Supekfluity op Tricks. — All games in 
the whist group are based upon the principle 
of the superfluity of tricks. In every deal 3 
tricks must be lost ; for as each of the suits has 
not less than 4 cards in some hand, there are at 
least 16 tricks with only 13 to play; with 7 
card suits we run up to 28, with the certainty 
that all but 13 of these tricks will be lost. This 
fact is the foundation of the long suit game and 
accounts for the very different results obtained 
by different players on the play of the same 
hands. The most difficult game is 5 point whist 
without honors. A trump is turned and no one 
knows how the strength is divided, nor is there 
a dummy. The goal is always in sight, with the 
possibility that it may be reached on the play 
of any hand. Brilliant players judge a hand and 
seize the game while the poor player flounders 
in his long suit. Therefore, wooden players 
preferred duplicate, which is indeed interesting, 
but is rather a summary of hands than a game, 
and an ordinary player who will consistently 
hold to his long suit makes a better score than 
the better whist player. Therefore at duplicate, 



The Superfluity of Tricks 67 

it is desirable to show great lenglth in a suit 
which may be brought in if the trumps are 
divided, and for this purpose number showing 
leads were used; which were tolerated at whist 
by the best players, because of their ability to 
disregard them when playing to the score, and 
by the lead of a short suit to confuse and de- 
range the mind of the ordinary player. Thus in 
a celebrated game at short whist at the score of 
4; 4, the dealer's partner, Mr. Henry Winthrop 
Gray, held 7 trumps in sequence to the king and 
his partner, a well known duplicate player, hold- 
ing A,J,9,x,x, in another suit, allowed the suit 
to be led through twice and to be trumped on 
the third round, thus winning the game against 
him, because he mistook the lead for a 4th best 
lead. This difference of one trick was a highly 
important game, but would not be worth trying 
at duplicate. With the advent of bridge the 
repute and self-esteem of many players was 
disturbed. The dummy in sight of all leaves no 
excuse for the poor player, except that he is a 
poor player; but if he is as bad as this, he was 
worse at whist, although entrenched in his sig- 
nals and echoes and American leads, he did not 
know it. The play of bridge, and still more of 
auction suffers in comparison with whist, by the 
information of the declaration and the exposure 
of the dummy. Many hands play themselves 



68 Dummy Play 

and you play against a strong bid. But this is 
more than made up for by the great interest 
of competitive bidding. By skill in bidding, 
those hands which play themselves often play 
for more than they are worth, and you get a 
penalty against a hand which would be invin- 
cible at bridge. Your bidding has been shown 
to be controlled by high cards and by length in 
suit. Often you find a long suit which you 
would like to have played as trumps by rea- 
son of its great length; at other times you find 
a short suit with an ace in it. Now if you 
bid both these alike, bidding the suit both be- 
cause you wish to play it for trumps and be- 
cause you do not wish to play it for trumps, 
but wish to show an ace in it so that your part- 
ner will declare a notrump, the merit of this 
this style of bidding will have the demerit of 
putting your partner to a guess. You must de- 
cide on some mode of play on which he may 
rely. For this purpose, rules have been given, 
but these rules are suggestions, made upon a 
balancing of probabilities and the variety of 
hands is greater than any rule. The great skill 
is to see the situations which will defeat the 
conventional rule. The particular hand con- 
trols and the ability to see the possible winning 
combination and to play for it. 
A different view has been taken by some 



Giving Information 69 

writers, as if the game were made for their 
rules and not the rules for the game, and some 
have seemed to think that to violate their rules 
involves moral turpitude. Thus, Hamilton, a 
most excellent writer, having laid down rules 
for long suit leads, considers cases such as 
where you in defiance of his rules have led a 
singleton and have saved the game by trumping 
his ace. His language is like the curse in Tris- 
tam Shandy: 

"You have a trick that of right does not belong 
to you. There is no strategy, no merit in the play. You 
have practiced a cheap deceit and nothing more." 
[By trumping my ace] "You have deceived the whole 
table. You have played falsely" [by trumping my 
ace.] ***"The language of the cards is confused, 
the conversation of the game and its intellectual status 
impaired." [By your atrocious trumping of my ace.] 

Giving Information. — It seems as if many 
bridge writers have not sufficiently considered 
in taking over the old whist rules, the great 
difference that is introduced by the fact that as 
a rule the enemies of the declarer are playing 
against declared strength. Suppose that your 
partner has doubled the declarer's notrump and 
the dummy is weak, or suppose that you have a 
strong hand, or a solid suit which if led will 
save the game; in these and in all practicable 



70 Dummy Play 

positions, you give your partner all the infor- 
mation possible. On the other hand, suppose 
that the declarer has carried his notrump to 3 
or 4 and is leading off his good cards, but 
your partner's suit is established. Often it is 
apparent that the difference between the de- 
clarer winning the game or losing a penalty 
depends on his ability to locate the position of 
some king or queen against which he must 
finesse, or the position of an ace. Here 
your rule should be the rule of non-infor- 
mation on these points, so as to put him 
to a wrong guess. The term false card 
means — a non-informatory card. If you should 
turn to the declarer and show him that queen, 
any one would see what a wrong that would be. 
The same position is arrived at if you tell him 
the same thing by your discard. The declarer 
will not claim that "the conversation of the game 
is impaired" by your clever unconventional 
play which subjected him to a penalty. 

Classification By Numbee, — The different 
ways 52 cards may be distributed is 53,644,737,- 
765,792,839,237,440,000. 

The number of different hands one player may 
obtain is 635,013,559,600. 

But the great bulk of these hands while mathe- 
matically different are practically identical and 
formed by replacing a card by an equivalent 



Table op Combinations 



71 



card. We arrive at reasonable figures by not- 
ing tbat the hand of any player must consist 
of one of 39 combinations. There are 39 ways 
in which the hand may be divided according to 
the numbers in the 4 svdts, and there are the same 
39 ways in which a single suit may he divided by 
numbers betiveen the 4 hands. To a person fa- 
miliar with these combinations a doubtful play 
or finesse is made much more certain. 

Table op Combinations in Order op Frequency 
IN 1,000 Hands 



4432 


215 


6430 


13 


5332 


155 


5440 


12 


5431 


...... 130 


5530 


9 


5422 


106 


6511 


7 


4333 


106 


6520 


6 


6322 


56 


7222 


5 


6421 


46 


7411 


4 


6331 


35 


7420 


3 


5521 


32 


7330 


3 


4441 


30 


8221 


2 


7321 


19 







The following occur once : 8311, 8320, 7510, 6610, 
8410. 

The following occur less than once: 9211, 9310, 
9220, 7600, 8500, 10210, 9400, 10111, 10300, 11200, 
12100, and 13000. 

The most common 7 card combination is 7,3,2,1. 
The most common 6 card combination is 6,3,2,2. 
The 5 card and 4 card combinations comprise 
about 80 per cent. The 5 card suit is the most 



72 Dummy Play 

common. About 71 per cent, are in the following, 
in order of frequency— 4432,5332,5431,5422,4333. 
Frequency of suits in 1,000 hands — 5 card 
suit — 444; 4 card suit — 351; 6 card suit — 165; 
7 card suit— 35 ; 8 or more— 20. In 1,000 deals 
there are 4,000 hands; that is, the probability 
that any particular combination will occur some- 
where in 1,000 deals is 4 times greater. 

SoKTiNG THE Cards. — Sort the cards deliber- 
ately. Alternate the colors. Do not put the 
same suit in the same place. Do not hold the 
suits apart. Do not place a card in the wrong 
suit. In particular, do not mistake the ace of 
diamonds for the ace of hearts. If the beginner 
never has occasion to notice the force of the 
above rules, he will be very fortunate. But it 
is a pleasure to intermit the task of analysis 
with a tribute to the masquerading ability of 
the ace of diamonds. Against a notrump at 
bridge, I have seen a player revoke 3 times on 
his partners' suit of 6 diamonds, because he had 
placed the ace of diamonds among his hearts. 
At auction, I have seen as good a player as any 
one wants for a partner, bid up to 4 hearts and 
be doubled; trump the first diamond trick and 
lead off his ace of hearts, which he now finds to 
be the ace of diamonds. 

Counting the Cards. — Certain and correct 
play rests upon counting the cards up to 13 in 



Counting the Cards 73 

the following manner, and after they are sorted : 
5 hearts, 5 ; 2 spades, 7 ; 3 diamonds, 10 ; 3 clubs, 
13. Distribution, 5,3,3,2. This plan is a check 
against later failure of attention. From failure 
to count the cards correctly, the player revokes 
and also is unable to remember the hand cor- 
rectly. This inability develops on the fourth 
or fifth trick. Playing from this point in the 
dark, he has no intelligible idea of the distribu- 
tion of the cards, nor of the results obtainable 
by correct play. As you count your hand, you 
must be familiar with the table of combinations 
and recognize at once whether the distribution 
is common or uncommon and be ready for 
trouble in the latter case. The impossibility of 
counting 13 is testified daily in every club. Cor- 
rect this fault by a habit of thinking what makes 
13, without thinking of 13. Thus 4 are played; 
you see 9. 

Attention and Memory. — Do not lay your 
bad play to lack of memory. You could not 
forget ; you never knew. The difference between 
good and bad play is attention — attention — at- 
tention — continuous attention. Exasperating 
errors keep occurring through want of attention. 
If you are in doubt as to your first lead, it is 
likely that one good player will lead one way 
and one another ; the game is started well enough 
and is lost by lack of attention. 



74 Dummy Play 

Ingenuous novices, not necessarily beginners, 
but high chair players, as they watch a good 
player, see that he does not play better than 
they do, nor as well, for his finesse was obvious- 
ly on the wrong side. When an ace and king 
are led in a suit of which he has 3,2, he has no 
brilliant way of taking these high cards with 
his low ones. Any one would have played his 
winning finesses the same way, but he is lucky 
and has tricks given to him; even when he 
finessed the wrong way, they gave back the trick 
by leading into his hand ! 

NoTRUMP Play of Declaeer A. Good Hands. 
— You, the declarer, can take the first trick and 
have good suits. Classify the hands by length, 
strength and tenaces. Thus dummy 7,3,2,1, my 
corresponding suits 2,5,3,2. Consider the long- 
est suit, adding up the cards between the 2 
hands. Eight at the start, the importance of 
being familiar with the possible combinations 
against that suit, is apparent. Also 9 cards 
between the 2 hands leave only 4 out; if the 
suit goes around twice, three low cards will 
be made good. Can I play so that if all the 
other cards are in one hand, I will still take all 
the tricks? Beginners are very liable to under- 
estimate the reasonable chances of establishing 
a suit of which they hold 9 or 10 cards between 
the two hands. They have exactly entry cards 



Out is Out 75 

enough to establish the suit if they begin at 
once. Yet they lead a shorter suit for some 
finesse which might much better be saved for a 
later time. Decide upon the play of the whole 
hand upon the first lead. 

Shall I Win the First Trick?— Hold off till 
the third round if you have only one trick, un- 
less you fear another suit even more. With 
K,x, and A,x,x, do not win the first trick unless 
you need the king for an entry. In the follow- 
ing you need the king for an entry : 

Dummy S.Q.J.10.9.X.X. H.K.x. C.x.x.x. D.x, 

A. S.A.x. H.A.x.x. C.A.K.x. D.K.Q.9.8.7. 

A poor player plays the king of hearts and leads 
the queen of spades for the finesse. He has 
blocked the great suit for no one will cover on 
such a suit as this. The dummy hand is dead. 
The equivalent of this situation occur frequently 
and is used in many illustrative hands. It is a 
long suit which may be established; an entry 
which need not be lost. 

What is the Score? — You are supposed to 
know the score at all times and to know how 
many tricks you need to win the bid and the 
game. But as you are about to take your first 
trick, think of this again and count up the tricks 
you can surely win. 

Out is Out. — Kun as soon as you see this po- 



76 Dummy Play 

sition. Do not risk a sure game on a likely 
finesse. The situation has been seen more than 
once that against a 3 diamond bid where the 
declarer has gone 3 notrump, the hand is too 
good; he sees 9 sure tricks, but thinks that he 
can get more. Thus in a recent instance the 
declarer had the K,Q, J, of diamonds ; 4 spades, 
with 4 in the dummy, including the A,K,Q. ; the 
A,K,Q, of clubs, with 3 in the dummy, and 6 
hearts in the dummy to the A,10, making 9 sure 
tricks if he leads back the diamond. He leads 
off the spades, but makes one good against him. 
Now he tries the hearts and in the exceptional 
position which was indicated by the 3 diamond 
bid makes 3 good against him. On their last 
lead of hearts he finds that he must discard one 
of his winning clubs in order to protect his dia- 
monds ! 

Is THE Caed Led the 4th Best? — It is to be 
hoped that the leader leads his 4th best, as this 
is your best help to win a doubtful game easily. 
If he does, deduct the number of the card led 
from 11 to find how many cards higher than 
the card led are not in his hand. Thus, he 
leads the 7 of diamonds, 11 — 7=4. Dummy has 
A,Q,10,2. You have 8,4. The 8 will win; his 
high cards are K,J,9, and you can lead through 
them. Let the 7 run to your 8 and note the 
card played by his partner. If it is the 6, the 



The Long Suit 11 

leader had 7. If the 5, he had at least 6. He 
is short or void of some suit. After a lead or 
two you can count his whole hand. Here it is 
to be noticed that some of the text books repre- 
sent the declarer to be such a phenomenal idiot 
that with good cards in his dummy he will not 
cover the 4th best lead, although with nothing in 
his own hand. 

The Long Suit. Entry Cards. — The de- 
clarer establishes his longest suit. He keeps 
entries in both hands as long as possible, but 
makes sure of an entry in the hand holding the 
longest suit. Thus dummy Q,J,10,9,x,x, and one 
entry ; yours, A,x,x. The finesse looks more rea- 
sonable than in the former hand, but do not 
take it unless it is needed for game. Note this 
case for your guidance when playing against 
dummy. The second hand should not cover the 
queen led and the 4th hand with K,x,x, should 
not take the first trick on your finesse. Then 
if you have taken the dummy's entry in order 
to make the finesse the suit is lost. Take in 
your hand and lead the ace at once and let them 
make their king if you can count game. Many 
illustrative hands have the same position, but not 
so plainly marked; 5 of diamonds led; 

Dummy S.K.J.10.9.x.x. H.x.x. C.x.x. D.Q.J.IO. 

A. S.Q.x. H.A.Q.10.X. CA.K.x.x. D.A.x.x. 



78 Dummy Play 

You must overtake with the ace of diamonds and 
lead the spades. In a common position the en- 
try is only in the great suit, as dummy A,K,x,x, 
x,x,x; yours, x,x,x. You lead a low card and 
let them have the first trick. Be careful not 
to block the great suit. There is nothing mys- 
terious about entry cards and blocking the suit, 
except the carelessness in not seeing the position 
until one trick too late. With 3 highest cards, 
2 in one hand, win the first trick in the 2 honor 
hand, as K,Q,9,x — A,10,x,x. If you take the first 
trick in the one honor hand, it may lose you 
the game. With 2 suits equally long and strong, 
after winning the first trick the second suit is 
your longest suit. This position is often over- 
looked. Thus, dummy has K,Q,J,10,x, in one suit 
and you have another 5 card suit as good and 
hold the first trick in one of these suits. It may 
now be necessary to lead the other suit, count- 
ing 2 tricks in their suit, 2 in another suit, 1 in 
the suit you led, 4 by changing to the suit which 
is now the longest — 9. The same situation may 
develop with a suit of 4 when they have held 
off twice in the 5 card suit. 

Ten ACES. — A tenace is where you hold the 
highest and lowest against the middle card of 
any 3 cards ; A,Q, is called the major tenace ; K, 
J, the minor tenace. If the middle card is on the 
right the tenace is complete so long as you 



Tenaces 79 

do not have to lead that suit from the tenace 
hand. Often you force an adversary to lead 
up to the tenace. A reversed tenace is where 
the highest card is one hand and the third is 
in the other. Here do not lead to the highest card 
unless you have the 4th card also. Thus, with 
A,x,x,x — Q, J,x, you lead the queen ; it is folly to 
lead the queen with A,x,x, — Q,x,x. If you are 
forced to lead you lead to the queen hoping 
that the king is on the right of the queen; but 
you try to force them to lead to that queen. Do 
not lead suits of 3 or 4 in which you have only 
K,Q, or Q,J, between the 2 hands. Make them 
lead the suit. Do not finesse for the sake of 
finessing. A common fault is to lead at once to 
A,Q, with nothing else in the suit ; H,x, led. 

Dummy D.A.Q. S.J.x.x.x. H.x.x.x.x. C,9.x,x, 

A. D.x.x. SA.x.x. H.A.Q. CA.Q.J.lO.x.x. 

Here A leads to the diamond finesse and fails 
of game with 9 sure tricks. Declarers have 
been known to play like this and to be set back 
with a small slam in hand. But if the finesse 
must be taken to win the game, take it prompt- 
ly and before your weakness in a third suit is 
manifest. The declarer finesses deeply with all 
his suits protected, often finessing against 2 
cards. This must be your rule whenever you 



80 Dummy Play 

can do so safely, in order that the recollection 
of your play may force the second hand to cover 
when he holds 2 honors. Particularly with A,J, 
10,x,x, at times with A,Q,10,x, or A,K,10,9, or 
K,Q,10,x, or A,J,9,x, or K,J,9,x. 

Vulnerable Notrumps. — The 4th best lead 
may show you that you must play K, or Q, from 
dummy. Thus 9 led, the queen from dummy 
will take the trick, although you have not A, or 
K. Where dummy wins the first trick and the 
declarer has a trick in the suit if it is led up 
to him, he leads from dummy and finesses so as 
to get the lead up to him. Therefore if he has 
no second trick, but sees from the 4th best lead 
that L is not sure of the control of the first suit, 
he finesses all the more because L will change 
the suit so as to get a lead through, remember- 
ing that when you finessed before he would have 
done well by changing the suit. With dangerous 
hands maintain an appearance of prosperity. 
Desperate games have been won by leading the 
worst suit and then the next worse, thus obtain- 
ing leads up to your tenaces. If you intend 
any such experiment, do so promptly and with- 
out showing any natural doubt and alarm. Poor 
players suspect a trap and will not return the 
suit you lead first unless they forget what it 
is. Against such, when there has been no bid 
in a suit which you fear, you may lead it once 



Vulnerable Notrumps 81 

yourself and get rid of it. Note how the prac- 
tice of giving them the first trick rather than 
the third in a great suit (ducking) and the prac- 
tice of holding back a solid suit helps your sub- 
sequent play of hands not having these advan- 
tages. Your main advantages, like prizes at 
duplicate, come from bad play of the enemy and 
this should be made easy for them. If you as- 
sist indifferent adversaries to a trick or tricks 
which they must make, they become suspicious 
of those tricks and try to force you to take a 
trick or two first. They change their suits and 
every time they lead they kill one of their 
honors. If you have only the king with small 
cards, do not make it easy for them to lead 
across this honor. Try to throw the lead so that 
they will be forced to lead up to this. Consider- 
ations like this often determine the side on 
which you should finesse. The skill of a good 
player includes the taking at an early stage a 
necessary finesse when the position is such that 
if he loses the finesse they will naturally give 
it back to him by leading up to his hand. The 
declarer also forces the adversaries to discard 
on his great suit and obtains information as 
to the location of their badly protected kings 
and queens by their discards. The hopeful ad- 
versaries proceed upon the theory that it is 
always better to inform your partner than to 



82 Dummy Play 

deceive the declarer, even though the declarer 
is in the lead and able to keep it. They give 
exact information as to their weaknefss ^and 
strength ; of which information the declarer has 
the first use and returns it marked — Damaged. 
At every stage, it is imperative for every player 
to have in mind the distribution which will win 
or save the game. Play for the winning com- 
bination as if you saw the cards. 

Play of Declarer's Left-Hand Adversary. 
L. NoTRUMP. Lead the Suit Your Partner Has 
Bid. — This rule is imperative. Lead the lowest 
of 4 unless you have the winner or Q,J,10,x, or 
such high cards that you may block him. Lead 
the highest of 3 or 2. It is a severe error not 
to show your partner the number of cards in 
his suit, if you can safely. 



Opening Leads vs. Notrump — No Suit Shown 





With Entry. 


Without Entry. 


A.K.J.X.X.X.X. 


A 


A 


A.K.10.X.X.X.X. 


A 


A 


A.K.9.X.X.X.X. 


A 


Aor X 


A.K.8.X.X.X.X. 


A 


X 


A.K.J.x.x.x. 


A 


A 


A.K.10.X.X.X. 


A 


X 


A.K.J.X.X. 


Aor X 


X 


A.K.J.x. 


K 


K 



Opening Leads vs. Notrump 83 





With Entry. 


Without Entry. 


A.Q.J.lO.x.x.x. 


A 


Q 


A.Q.J.lO.x.x. 


A 


Q 


A.Q.J.lO.x. 


A 


Q 


A.Q.J.IO. 


A 


A 


A.Q.x.x.x.x.x. 


A 


X 


A.Q.x.x.x.x. 


A 


X 


A.J. 10.x. or more 


J 


J 


A.10.9.8. or more 


10 


10 


A.10.9.7. or more 


10 


10 


K.Q.J, or more 


K 


K 


K.Q.lO.x, or more 


K 


K 


K.J. 10.x. or more 


J 


J 


K.10.9.8. or more 


10 


10 


K.10.9.7. or more 


10 


10 


Q.J.lO.x. or more 


Q 


Q 


Q.J.9.X.X. or more 


.Q 


Q 


Q.J.9.X.X. 


X 


X 


Q.10.9.8. or more 


10 


10 



In all other cases lead the lowest, unless in a 
5 card suit with 2 honors and 2 cards in se- 
quence higher than the 5, as J,10,7,6,2, where 
the fourth best may be led. Do not lead the 
fourth best from a 6 or 7 card suit. 

Intermediate Sequence. — This system re- 
quires a low lead from J,10,9,x,x in order that 
the lead of J or 10 may always show 1 honor 
above the intermediate sequence. The advan- 



84 Dummy Play 

tage is that you know my suit exactly wlieu A 
takes the trick. If I lead the J, the other way 
also and A takes the first trick with Q, and 
the second with ace, you do not know whether 
he has K or not. On the other hand, the lead 
of the J from J,10,9,x,x may be advantageous 
if the Q is in dummy and you have the K, so 
that you must choose between the certainty of 
this system and the possible advantage of re- 
taining the alternative lead. Every rigid mode 
of play sacrifices something. Both Pole and 
Cavendish advise the fourth best from J,10,9, 
x,x. Having won the first trick with the ace, 
you place in A's hand any honor not played by 
your partner E on the ace, unless dummy holds 
4 to J or 10, or has none or only one. Where 
dummy is void and R plays a low card, L knows 
that R has no help and probably only 3. 

Having won the first trick with the king, on 
the lead from K,Q,10,x,x, L knows from the 
failure of R to play an honor, that A holds 
both ace and J and that he must change the suit. 

He leads to take out the dummy's entry. The 
first suit proving bad, if dummy has a long suit 
not established and only one entry, the play is 
to take away that entry. 

He leads through the strength in dummy, so 
that if that is his partner's suit it may be cleared 
and the partner not be forced to lead up to it. 



Leads op the Fikst Leadee L 85 

Often lie leads a supporting Q or J across the 
K,x,x. 

He leads the snit which E must have in order 
to save the game. The situation is that his first 
suit is against him; a second is shown against 
him on the lead of A. At auction the game is 
probably gone, for E has shown no suit. Some- 
times he has a good suit which has been shut 
out by the other bids. If there is any possi- 
bility of any such suit, you must lead on the 
chance of it. 

He returns the declarer's forced lead. Here 
the suit of L is between A and L so that either 
will lose a trick by leading it. A puts dummy 
in the lead with a second suit and leads from 
dummy a third suit for a finesse. It is very 
likely that the second suit is in the nature of a 
forced lead and that he has not more than one 
more trick in it. Consider this possibility care- 
fully. He cannot have all the cards in all the 
suits. He finessed into your hand, what is his 
worst suit? Here the failure of E to bid may 
show that A has something in the fourth suit. 
Here you may be helped by an echo by E. 

Consider whether your partner's card in that 
suit is not unnecessarily high. Suppose it is 
the 5 and the 2, 3 and 4 do not appear either in 
dummy or in your hand. Is there any possible 
reason to think that A has these 3? This is an 



86 Dummy Play 

extreme case, for it will ordinarily happen that 
if E wishes that suit led, he can play a fairly 
high card. Your decision must be carefully 
made; if the second lead of A was not forced, 
the fourth suit must be led; if it was forced 
the lead must be returned. 

"Where the declarer's partner bid El or H 
and A went to a notrump which has fair cards 
against it in your hand, it is likely that he has 
nothing in the suit first bid. Often a good lead 
is suggested by this position. 

Leadee^s Play as Second Hand. Second Hand 
Low. — 1 — On low card unless you have three 
high cards. 2 — On high card led as through 
K,x,x,x, to A,x,x. 3 — When you can block the 
suit by not taking the high card, as with A,x,x. 
But with A,x you play A on K or Q where dum- 
my does not show J also, unless the dummy has 
7 and no entry. 

With more than 2, do not put up your high 
card to beat the dummy Q or J for your part- 
ner's honor may fall on the same trick or be 
lost on the next trick. 

Will A dare finesse against your two high 
cards? Few finesse against two honors; if they 
are leading to A,Q,10,x in D, they play the Q 
here ; holding, K, J,x it is folly to play J. 

Second Hand High. — Cover an honor led un- 
less the cover is useless, where you see all the 



Second Hand High 87 

other cards in dummy. With two honors, con- 
sider the whole situation and have your mind 
made up before the lead is made. 

10 led— A.Q.x. K.J.x.x. play A 

10 led— A. J.x.x. or A. J.x. K.Q.x.x. " x 

10 led— K.Q.x.x. A. J.x.x. " x 

10 led— K.Q.x. A. J.x.x. " Q 

10 led— K.J.9. A.Q.X.X. " J 

10 led— K.J.x. A.Q.x.x. " K 

Cover when the cover will make you a lower 
card good. A bad cover is where A leads to 
catch the Q and has a sure finesse on either 
side, if he knows where the Q is. Where A leads 
J to A,x,x,x, in dummy, his lead may be 
from K,J,10,x, and if you do not cover he will 
play the ace and finesse on the second round. 

Assuming that you are the ordinary player, 
you should receive valuable information as to 
your mode of play here. Absorbed in the 
thought of what will happen to your long suit, 
you find that the declarer has led across a high 
card in your hand; you start as if you see a 
snake and the declarer has a touchdown for 
which you supply the football and the brass 
band. Never hesitate when your hand is led 
through. With only low cards you cannot hesi- 
tate, then why tell him all about it? Plave your 
mind made up before he leads. The declarer 



88 T)uMMY Play 

leads to K, J,x in dummy ; you have A,x. What 
are you writhing for? You are not thinking 
of playing the queen, are you? No, you are 
telling him that you have the ace. Likewise, if 
you have nothing in the suit led, it is not neces- 
sary to tell them ; you should play exactly alike 
in each case. Now the declarer does not know 
anything about whether you have the high card 
or not and your partner may have some fine 
coup. With ace, queen only or king, jack only, 
or queen, 10 only, he may play the high one 
first, so that the declarer shall surely finesse 
the second time. Thus the leader opens his suit 
which the declarer wins and leads 9 to dummy's 
A,Q,10,x,x ; R, with K, J only, does not win with 
the jack on the double finesse, but wins with 
the king and proceeds to clear his partner's suit 
of which he has a third card to give him. The 
declarer having won the next trick finesses the 
clubs again and plays the 10, being sure that 
L has the jack. The point of such a play is 
that you make it when the declarer's hand is 
too good and you see that he has a game but 
is trying for extra tricks before he is obliged 
to run for game. Your partner's suit not being 
established, it is a slam for the declarer if he 
can win both finesses and very properly he 
tries at once. Now if you win with the jack 
and establish your partner's suit, the declarer 



Declarer's Left -Hand Adversary L 89 

being a good player will not take the next 
finesse until after he has led off enough win- 
ning cards for game, but in the times where 
such plays are made the good player does not 
think that there is any possible risk. 

NoTRUMP, Declarer's Bight-PIand Adver- 
sary, R. — E, the player at the declarer's right, 
is the worst player of the lot, and loses many 
games by his bad plays and discards. 

1. He refuses to give exact information on 
L's high lead. 

2. He does not unblock. 

3. He does not finesse to beat the dummy, but 
does finesse against his partner. 

4. He plays unnecessarily high cards. 

5. He does not return the leader's suit. 

6. He does not know when to change the suit. 

7. On A's lead, he takes the trick too soon, 
or not soon enough. 

8. He does not cover the dummy honor led, 
unless when it is plain that he should not. 

9. He shows his hand to the declarer, by his 
discard when the declarer is in the lead. 

A Picture on a Picture is the great help to 
the leader. He does not lead the king from 
A,K,x to take a look ; his high leads will be good 
if E has an honor; all he asks is to be told 
whether this is so or not. The refusal to play 
the queen on the leader's ace is wicked, but the 



90 Dummy Play 

refusal to play the jack on Ms king has lost 
more tricks than any other third-hand play. The 
rule is all important for the cases where you 
do not hold the honor; and these are the more 
frequent cases. By the low play under this 
rule, the leader knows what high cards the de- 
clarer has. If dummy has none, or only one, 
or has such cards that this rule will make a 
good card for him, you may play your second 
best; but you must have some good reason for 
deviating from the rule and the reason must 
be as apparent to the leader as to yourself. If 
L leads ace, play your king or queen. If he 
leads king, play your ace or jack. If he leads 
queen, play your ace or king. If he leads jack 
play your highest card, unless there is a finesse 
against the dummy. If he leads the 10 from 
an intermediate sequence, you finesse against 
the dummy, or if there is no finesse, you play 
your highest card; always using ordinary com- 
mon sense and knowing whether the lead is 
from a long suit or not. If it is first lead, it is 
his longest suit unless he has bid a suit, or 
unless you can see that he would have bid the 
suit if he had the high cards which the long suit 
lead indicates. With 4 in his suit do not play 
the lowest on his high lead. 

2. Unblocking. — Do not block the leader's 
suit. The rule of a picture on a picture covers 



Finesse to Beat the Dummy 91 

many cases given in the books as instances of 
unblocking, as where you play A or K with only 
2. Unblocking is of two kinds. You play high 
to inform the leader and to get out of his way. 
You discard a high card so that the leader can 
overtake your small card led. This second and 
frequent situation is invariably misplayed by 
fair players. When you have to discard the 
leader's suit, keeping only one to return, keep 
the lowest. Thus L leads from A,9,x,x, you have 
Q,J,x, and the declarer has K,10,x. A takes your 
J with K and leads a long suit on which you 
have to discard one of the leader's suit. Your 
discard of the small card blocks the leader's 
suit; you must throw the Q. Now the leader 
knows that you have a small card to give him 
and that his suit is good if you can get in to 
lead it. 

3. Finesse to Beat the Dummy. — 



Dummy's. 


Yours. 


Play. 


K.X.X. 


AJ.X.X. 


J. 


K.J.x. 


A.9.X. 


9. 


K.lO.x. 


A.9.X. 


9. 


Q.x.x. 


A.J.x. 


J. 


Q.X.X. 


K.10.X. 


10. 


J.X.X. 


K.lO.x. 


10. 



This rule secures to you the advantage of a 
fourth best lead without the exposure of the 



92 Dummy Play 

leader's hand which is given by the fourth best 
lead where you have no support in his suit. 

Do not finesse if it will block the suit; never 
when such a blocking requires that he shall be 
twice in the lead before his suit is cleared. Thus, 
dummy's K,x,x, yours A,J,x. Play ace, then 
jack. In the application of any such rule, it is 
understood that you must use common sense. 
You are giving them a trick to make sure of 
saving the game. If the dealer has called the 
notrump and the dummy has little help, you 
may have a hand where you need this ace, as 
with a suit which seems better than the leader's 
suit; or the leader may have made a bid and 
be trying to get you into the lead. In finessing 
to beat the dummy, it is safe to assume that 
the leader has three cards in his hand higher 
than the 6 spot. Therefore, if you see in the 
dummy hand and yours, four cards higher than 
the 6, this leaves one for the declarer and the 
chances are that it is the highest missing card. 
Thus, if the card he holds may be either an ace 
or a 10, the chances are that it is the ace. The 
rule for leading intermediate sequences often 
makes the position clear; but good players 
finesse to beat the dummy whether a fourth best 
card is led or not. A bad play is to finesse 
against your partner. This means that there 
is nothing in the dummy to finesse against and 



Declarer's Right-Hand Adversary R 93 

that you should play your highest card (remem- 
bering, however, that of two or more cards in 
sequence you should play the lowest). Poor 
players with the ace, queen of their partner's 
suit, play the queen and let the declarer's sin- 
gleton king win the trick. Of if he leads the 
jack, they refuse to play their ace, thus allow- 
ing the declarer's queen to make where the part- 
ner has led from the king, jack, ten. 

4. Beginners do not see the importance of 
playing the lowest of equal cards, with K,Q, J ; 
they will play the king. Always win with the 
lowest possible card. Be accurate in the play 
of low cards. If you have the 6 and 7 and play 
the 7, your partner will put the 6 in the de- 
clarer's hand and may lose the game by thus 
being forced to miscount the declarer's hand. The 
beginner does not realize that to save the game 
requires that he shall give as exact and careful 
information as possible of all matters which do 
not help the declarer and may help his partner. 

5. Do not change suits without a strong rea- 
son. The rule is to return the leader's suit 
unless the dummy has more than one trick in it. 
Be sure to return the highest of three. With 
four, if you have an honor in your remaining 
three cards, lead the honor; but with three in- 
different cards remaining, return the lowest, 
unless there is danger of blocking the suit. 



94 Dummy Play 

Suppose that the leader leads his suit and that 
you have five in it and are about to return the 
suit and have an honor in it. If it is the win- 
ning honor, of course, you must lead it ; but if 
not, there are two dangers. If you lead the 
high card, your partner may have only four 
and may block you ; if you lead low, he may fear 
that you have no more and change the suit. The 
rule is to return the lowest card of five. 

6. On the leader's low lead, change the suit 
with: 1. A suit to be established in one lead 
and a sure entry. 2. A suit to be established in 
two leads and two entries. 3. A strong play- 
ing hand and only two in the suit led, particu- 
larly so, if that suit is short in dummy. This 
having only two is often the only good reason 
for changing the suit. In this case, you may 
have a good suit and weakness in the dummy 
to lead up to. Or the dummy may be so strong 
in your partner's suit that it is folly to go on 
with that suit. Do not fear to lead up to a suit 
of which dummy has only the ace. Consider 
whether you should not lead at once to take 
away dummy's only entry. This at times de- 
mands a change of suit; as where dummy has 
a very long suit in which you have a trick ; and 
you see that if you take away the entry, the 
hand will be dead. 

7. Do not take the first trick in their suit 



Declarer's Eight-Hand Adversary E 95 

too soon. Make sure of blocking the long dunmiy 
suit and with a A,x,x hold off till the third trick. 
Thus dummy has 6 to the queen and nothing 
else. The declarer leads the jack, then the 
king. The common and bad play is to take this 
second trick, giving dummy three tricks if the 
declarer has a third card in the suit. Also 
where the declarer leads to A,Q, J,x,x, in dummy 
and you have K,x,x, it is bad play to take at 
once. Play low, without any hesitation, so that 
the declarer will finesse again, if your partner's 
suit is not established. Also it may be that you 
have 5 to A,10,9,8,x and an entry. The declarer 
leads K to dummy's Q,J,x,x,x. Your best play 
probably is not to take the first trick, but to take 
the second and return the suit. With the ace 
and one, it ordinarily is bad to hold off, because 
the ace must fall on the second round and by 
taking their king or queen at once you may 
make an honor good for your partner. 

8. Cover the dummy honor led, unless the 
cover is plainly useless. If dummy has Q, J,10,x 
and you have K,x,x,x, it is idle to cover and by 
holding off the declarer may have to play his 
ace or block the suit. So if dummy leads the 
jack from K,J,10,x and you have Q,x,x you will 
play low without hesitation. 

9. Do not show your hand to the declarer by 
your discard when the declarer is in the lead. 



96 Dummy Play 

In the hands which are bid up to 3 or 4, it often 
happens that the declarer would have his bid 
at double dummy, but now he is in doubt as to 
the position of a king or a queen and may lose 
his bid if he makes the wrong finesse. The case 
just given where you have the queen third, 
shows the injury which may be done by a bad 
discard in this suit where it is necessary to 
make the queen to save the game, for the de- 
clarer having a finesse on either side can win 
the queen if he knows where it is. He leads 
a long suit, forcing a discard and if your part- 
ner discards one of his worthless cards in your 
queen suit, the declarer concludes that you have 
the queen. Therefore when you have two or 
three worthless cards in a suit in which the 
dummy is strong, often it is necessary for you 
to hold every one of them and to discard any 
other suit than this, in the hope that by so doing 
you may make the declarer finesse on the wrong 
side. Also it is a very important rule that if 
you have four cards in the dummy's suit, you 
should keep every one of them if the declarer 
is in the lead. Thus in a hand published as 
showing the advantage of discarding from 
strength, and the danger of discarding from a 
weak suit, the declarer has allowed the leader's 
suit to be established on the second round, but 
it happens that you have no more. You have 



The Discaed 97 

two worthless clubs; A,9,7,5,4 of diamonds and 
9,7,5,4 of spades. The dummy has in spades 
Q,8,6,3,2. The declarer now leads five roimds 
of clubs and it is expected that you as a weak 
discarder will throw away these spades. This 
is the last thing that you will think of doing as 
a weak discarder. As such you will discard 
three diamonds without an echo, so that the 
declarer shall not know that you have the ace 
of diamonds. Any such suit is not a worthless 
suit; there is an excellent chance of a trick in 
it where the dummy has five; and even if the 
declarer has the other four he cannot overtake 
in the dummy hand if you keep all of them. 

The Discaed. — Discard from weakness. If 
you are obliged to discard your good suit and 
wish to inform your partner, discard a card 
in it which he can see to be unnecessarily high. 
Discard to protect the two hands and deceive 
the declarer. The first rule answers such a 
question as. Supposing that I am the first leader 
and have led a suit and the declarer has taken 
the trick and has led a second suit which I take 
and you discard a 2 spot from a third suit, 
what do you mean by it I You mean weakness in 
that suit by the concurrent testimony of nearly 
all good players; that is, you may play for 
months without meeting any one who discards 
differently. But it has been strongly urged that 



98 Dummy Play 

you should mean strength and that this is the 
suit that you wish led. It may be desirable for 
you to ask some stranger how he discards, and 
it is to be hoped that he will not follow the rule 
given in one of the latest books and answer, "I 
discard safely." The statement which is made 
by my low card discard is that this is a weak 
suit. And the reason why this discard has been 
so universally accepted is that it saves your 
strong suit where the declarer is playing a 
weak notrump ; and that it enables you to pro- 
tect your hand where he is in the lead and 
playing a strong notrump. For in the latter 
case, being known as a discarder from weak- 
ness, you will often discard from your strong 
suit in the hope that the declarer may mistake 
your discard. Thus Hoyle says under the head- 
ing of "Particular Games to Endeavor to Dis- 
tress and Deceive Your Adversaries," "If a 
suit is led of which I have none and a moral 
certainty that my partner has not the best of 
that suit, in order to deceive the adversary I 
throw away my strong suit; but to clear up 
doubts to my partner, when he has the lead, I 
throw away my weak suit." Thus in a common 
situation where my partner's suit is established, 
I may throw my strong suit and hold a worth- 
less suit in the hope that the declarer if he 
misses an honor in each of the remaining suits, 



The Discard 99 

will finesse wrongly. Here the last thing to 
have known is the position of the missing 
honors. 

Note carefully that in order to obtain the 
position intended by Hoyle the discard if made 
in the strong suit is a false card to the partner 
as well as to the dealer, made with the intention 
of not telling either of them where the strength 
is, unless the card appears to be unnecessarily 
high. 

It seems that the force of this position has 
not been considered by the excellent bridge 
writers who have favored the strong discard. 
They see plainly the need, which a poor player 
does not see, of protecting the hand, but the 
remedy of telling the declarer where their 
strength is, when he is in the lead, is a losing 
game. On the foregoing principle the declarer 
is put to a guess, which may be a bad one for 
him. He may suspect that I have that king, 
although I have promptly thrown that suit, but 
he would much prefer to know that my first 
discard is from strength. If to this it is an- 
swered that the strong discarder can falsecard 
also, he may not be able to do this with the 
short suits ; and in so far as his arguments are 
good as to the need of protecting these short 
suits, they turn against his discarding from 
them. 



100 Dummy Play 

If only one suit is shown and you are called 
on to discard at notrump, your partner will 
look carefully to see if you throw an unneces- 
sarily high card and if you do he will lead that 
suit. But if you have to make two discards 
and discard the same suit without an echo ; that 
is, without discarding the second time, a card 
lower than the first card, he will conclude that 
you are willing that he should lead either of the 
other suits and will lead the suit in which he 
can help you the better. This high discard is 
also used to show what suit to lead; as where 
you have an established suit which your partner 
is out of, you discard as high a card as you 
safely can in the suit in which you have an 
entry. 

Declaeee^s Play. Teumps. — 1. He takes out 
the trumps and reduces the game to a notrump, 
with the advantage of having enough trumps 
left to bring in some good suit. 2. He estab- 
lishes a cross ruif and by starting in to do this 
forces the enemy to lead trumps in cases where 
it is better that the trump lead shall come from 
them. His play is bad if he does not at once dis> 
criminate between hands where he must lead 
trumps and hands where he must first lead for a 
ruif. This fault occurs in hands that are too 
good; that look sure, but are not sure in every 
way. He fails of game at one time because he 



Establishing an Entey 101 

did not draw the trumps and at another time be- 
cause he did draw the trumps. His mistake in 
the first situation is emphasized by the fact that 
he lets the enemy trump some of his good cards. 
The fear of this causes him to overlook the 
situation where his game depends on two ruffs 
in dummy. He seems to have trumps enough, 
but they are badly divided; one of the adver- 
saries has three or four and leads them back, 
because he sees that the game is lost unless he 
can stop the impending cross ruff. If he leads 
for the ruff in dummy they will lead the trumps 
for him, but will not have leads enough to pre- 
vent his necessary ruffs. 

The declarer fears the singleton excessively 
and gives up the winning finesse on account of 
his fear. He does not take advantage of the 
invariable habit of some players never to lead 
low from an ace or king. If you as declarer 
have a suit with only two honors in it, try to 
play so that the enemy will have to lead that 
suit rather than lead it yourself, particularly 
so if there are only three in each hand. 

Establishing an Entry. — With a winning 
hand, the declarer often fails of game by not 
making certain of an entry. Many illustrative 
hands at bridge show these positions and each 
one is plain enough and yet is misplayed by 
the beginner because he does not give early at- 



102 Dummy Play 

tention to what is going to happen in the play 
of the last four tricks. Supposing that you have 
six trumps and dummy has three — ^nine in all. 
You lead these trumps twice and it happens that 
the other four are taken out. This may happen 
well enough and when it has happened you find 
that all your trumps are higher than the one 
left in dummy; and you cannot put him in by 
leading a low trump from your hand, although 
he has tricks in an established suit of which 
you have none. Such carelessness is frequent. 
In another standard position the declarer blocks 
the dummy's entry by refusing to overtake the 
dummy's high card, as where the dummy has 
K,Q only and you have A,x only. In another 
position, he blocks his own trump suit where he 
has A,x,x, of trumps in dummy and the other 
high honors in his own hand and needs to have 
two ruffs in dummy. 

Always remember the bids. This is so vital 
that it is assumed that it is unnecessary to keep 
on telling you this. Where L does not lead 
to his partner's bid, it is almost certain 
that he has led a singleton, but he may 
have two. Your familiarity with the combina- 
tions is of the greatest aid here. If you see 
unusual distributions in your own hand and 
dummy, consider your mode of playing these 
hands carefully before you play a card. If you 



Opening Leads Against Trumps 



103 



see singletons, consider his card led to be a 
singleton and make certain that he shall not 
have too many ruffs, or any if you can help it. 
Always remember the score and always take the 
game. If a finesse is necessary for game, take 
it even if the loss of it will lose your bid. 

Opening Leads Against Trumps — No Suit Shown 
In Order of Preference 



A.K.Q.J. 


Lead 


K. then J. 


A.K.Q. 


" 


K. then Q. 


A Singleton 


" 


Singleton. 


A.K. only 


<< 


A. then K. 


K.Q. only 


" 


K. - Q. 


K.Q.J. + 


a 


K. " Q. 


K.Q.10. +■ 


"■ 


K. 


Q.J.IO. + 


" 


Q. 


A.x.x. or A.x. 


ii 


Small card. 


A suit of 2, holding 


A.Q.x.x. 




K.Q.x.x. or K.J.x.x 


in your ' ' 


Highest of 


long suit 






K.J.lO.x. 


(C 


J. 


K.Q.X.X. 


11 


K. 


A long weak suit 


" 


Lowest 


A forced lead from 3 " 


Middle card 



The singleton is the declared enemy of the 
trump declaration. If you can stop the trump 
lead, the singleton is better than to show the K 
in an ace, king suit, for R will not take your 



104 Dummy Play 

second lead for a singleton. If your only fonr- 
card suit is trumps and you have to lead a three- 
card suit without a sequence, many good play- 
ers at times lead the worthless middle card in 
order to be able to show a lead from 3, ordi- 
narily indicating that they wish a lead to some 
tenace in their hand. Ace followed by K 
means that you have no more and wish to trump. 
The low lead from A,x or A,x,x is a trying lead 
to the declarer. Thus in actual play, L leads 
C,2 ; dummy plays J from K, J,x, which E won 
with q, returning the c to the lead from Ax. L 
wins and later obtains a ruff, saving the game. 
Contrast this situation with the comfortable 
position of a declarer playing against a leader 
who never leads low from an ace. This case 
requires judgment. You cannot afford to have 
it known that you never lead low from an ace. 
You will not do so against a strong chance of 
having your ace trumped, or in any unusual 
distribution, but where you hold a hand divided 
4,4,3,2 for example, there is not much risk in 
leading low from an ace in one of the short 
suits. 

The lead of the highest of two is ordinarily 
an invitation to E. to lead to a tenace in some 
other suit, rather than in the hope of a ruff. 
Every one hates to lead from K,J,x,x, but this 
prejudice must not be too strong, for E may 



The Long Suit Game 105 

have both A,Q,x, in which case he will never 
lead the suit. 

The Long Suit Game. — With four trumps the 
possibility of being able to establish a long suit 
and break the declarer's hand by forcing him on 
your long suit must always be played for, if 
it looks in any way plausible. Thus in the dis- 
tribution 5,4,3,1 with four trumps to an honor 
and a good five-card suit, the long suit may be 
a much better lead than the singleton. Suppose 
that you have bid this suit and that B has sup- 
ported you. You lead the suit; declarer is 
forced to ruff, having six trumps. He leads 
trumps three times and the third time you can 
take the trick. You go on with the long suit 
and force him again. Now it takes his last 
trump to draw yours and if E can take a trick 
in your singleton suit, the declarer is down. Or 
he may have only five trumps with such strength 
in your singleton suit that the advantage of that 
lead to him wins his game, while your strong 
forcing game would have beaten him. It will 
be understood, then, that the singleton lead is 
a chance for saving the game and that with a 
strong playing hand with four trumps, the long 
suit game is better. 

Tkumps. Play of Declarer's Right-Hand 
Adversary, R. — Is the lead a singleton? What 
is the score and the bid? 



106 Dummy Play 

The Play on High Card Led. — You must 
give immediate and sure information on the 
lead of a high card. 

The Call for a Euff. — This is the most valu- 
able signal at bridge and auction. When L leads 
K, signal if you have only two, both below the 
10 ; that is, play the higher card first. When you 
play the next and lower card, L knows that you 
have no more and that you will trump the third 
round. Do not signal with an honor unless the 
position is shown by the dummy, as where 
dummy has Q,x,x, yours J,x; or dummy Q,J,x, 
yours 10,x. If you play J on K, he thinks you 
have Q, only or no more and leads low, losing 
a trick. At bridge do not confuse L by using 
this signal also to show that you can take the 
third trick in the suit if it will go round three 
times, leaving him in doubt whether you mean 
that you can win by a ruff or by a high card 
in the suit. When L leads K then A, and you 
play 2,3, he knows that you have at least one 
more. This is the best you can do, unless you 
wish to make him continue the suit and force 
the declarer as may well be if you are strong 
in trumps so that you can play for your own 
hand. At auction, the declarer has the trumps 
and with Q,x,x, or Q,x,x,x, with three in dummy, 
it may be well to signal. 



Play the Smallest Card You Can 107 

The Encouraging High Card. — L leads ace; 
you have K. Play as high as you can afford 
so as to encourage him to go on. If you play a 
small card, he will change the suit. With Q,x,x,x 
on L's lead of K, if dummy has three it is likely 
that A will trump the third round. Therefore 
if you prefer to have L change the suit, as to 
lead through the dummy to strengthen your 
hand, you will not encourage L to go on with 
the first suit. 

Do not finesse against the leader. Play ace 
on Q led where K is not in diunmy. But with 
J led, if dummy holds K or Q and does not cover, 
you will play low unless the immediate play of 
the ace is necessary to save the game. 

Play the Smallest Card You Can. — Abso- 
lute accuracy in the play of indifferent cards 
is demanded, because L counts in the declarer's 
hand any card denied by the third hand. This 
includes the play of the lowest of a sequence. 

Do not sacrifice an honor on your partner's 
short lead. Suppose you have 4 to K or Q and 
L leads a card from what cannot be a strong 
suit, play low as your only chance of saving a 
trick by the necessity now put upon the declarer 
of getting enough times in the dummy hand to 
catch the honor. At times, he will think that L 
holds the honor. The play of the high card is 
especially bad when by not playing high you 



108 Dummy Play 

will have a sure trick; thus he leads 10, yours 
K,J,x. 

Having won a trick, E holding A,K in another 
suit, shows this by leading K. Or holding a 
strong suit, or K,Q,J, he may lead that. Here 
he considers all the facts of the bids, and of the 
cards shown. Particularly he thinks again 
whether L's first lead was a singleton. If E has 
bid a suit and L has not, the opening lead from 
L of another suit must be a singleton. His 
lead of a singleton here shows that he expects 
either that you will win the trick or that one 
of you can stop the impending trump lead. 

Lead to the Weakness in Dummy. — ^No suit 
having been shown, L has led a card which 
seems a short lead or is marked as such by the 
play, and you win the trick. You infer that L 
wishes a ruff and return the lead. Before any 
such play, consider whether the lead may not 
be an invitation card from a fairly strong hand 
with tenaces and some strength in trumps. The 
great rule of dummy whist is to lead through 
the strength up to the weakness. Are you short 
in trumps? Can you save the game by trying 
to ruff L? At auction the situation is likely to 
be more clear from the bid of L. He has bid a 
suit and has not led it, you not having sup- 
ported his bid. If dummy has three weak cards 
in that suit the declarer has some strength in 



Lead to the Weakness in Dummy 109 

it. Shall I lead through the declarer up to the 
weakness 1 If you have no singleton and dummy 
has none, it is likely that L has two cards in 
his invitation lead. May he not also have four 
trumps and an honor? All these questions must 
be considered. If you do not see any peculiar 
distribution of the cards, it is better to lead to 
his suit up to weakness in dummy, and in this 
case A,x,x in dummy may be counted as weak- 
ness. Let your rule be to lead to his suit, unless 
you have strength enough in it to be willing to 
have him lead it to you after you have given 
him a ruff. Also lead to the weak dummy hand 
rather than to try to force your partner, unless 
you are willing to have him lead you the weak 
dummy suit, or through some honor in dummy. 
If your hand is so strong as to control the situa- 
tion, do what you like and try in every way to 
give L a ruff. But where you are not likely 
ever to be in the lead again, or only once, and 
you try to force L because he has opened a 
short suit, his trump strength is destroyed and 
he is forced to lead away from his tenaces up 
to the declarer. In leading to weakness in 
dummy, see if you cannot safely lead such a 
high card as to beat the dummy, so that the 
declarer will be forced to cover. 

The importance of gettiag an unprotected 
ace out of the dummy is great. If you have 



110 Dummy Play 

something, but not tlie K, the lead up to the 
ace may clear the suit for you, particularly if 
you have a sequence to lead. So where a card 
in dummy is an entry for a strong dummy suit, 
you often play to take away that card. Always 
lead the top of a sequence, if you open a sequence 
suit. If you have to lead a suit of three lead 
the top unless it is an honor. If you have 2 
honors in sequence in the three-card suit lead 
the top from K,Q,x, Q,J,x or J,10,x; but with 
Q,x,x lead the middle card unless it is your part- 
ner's bid. At auction more than one suit is 
pretty sure to be shown. Therefore the play 
against the declarer is simplified by the rule to 
lead that suit, if it is your partner's suit. Now 
the situation occurs, that dummy is short of that 
suit. Can you safely lead trumps? Always 
lead trumps if you see a double-cross ruff im- 
pending. Stop the dummy's ruff if you do 
not have reason to fear a solid suit led against 
you after the trumps are exhausted. If you 
see that they are surely game, you may as well 
save what tricks you can. In returning the 
original lead or leading to your partner's bid, 
lead the winning card if you have it, irrespec- 
tive of number, but in other cases show your 
length in the suit by returning the lowest of 
four and the highest of three or two and with 
less than four play the suit from the top down. 



Fourth Best Lead 111 

This is a point often overlooked. You have 
7,3,2 in your partner's suit and he puts you in, 
say, by leading to your bid. You lead the 7, 
of course. He wins and leads a high card, you 
should play the 3, not the 2. But you say, there 
is the risk that he may think that I had only 2. 
This is true enough and is an objection to the 
rule, but in practice the objection is thought to 
be more than counterbalanced by the fact that 
if you play this way, called "playing down and 
out," as soon as you play the lowest card out, 
your partner knows that you are out of the 
suit and may give you a sure ruff if you had 
only two. Thus you lead him the 7, he wins 
with Q and leads ace, on which you play the 2. 
He knows that you have no more and that you 
can ruff the third lead. 

Fourth Best Lead^ 11 Eule. — If we num- 
ber the cards from 2 up, the highest is 14, 
and by taking the number of the card from 14 
we know how many cards in the suit are higher 
than that card and three of these are in the 
leader's hand, on the fourth best lead. There- 
fore by taking the number of the card from 11 
we know how many cards, higher than the card 
led, are not in the leader's hand, if the leader 
leads his fourth best. With a four-card suit, 
the lowest is also the fourth best. When it is 
said, as is now said, Do not lead the fourth best 



112 Dummy Play 

at trumps, the reference is to the lead of a suit 
having more than four cards. At trumps, with 
such a lead and the declarer's false card, the 
partner may be unable to tell whether the lead 
is from 7,6,5,4,3,2, or 1. Abandoning the 
fourth best, the declarer's attempt to falsecard 
becomes ludicrous because it marks him with 
the missing cards which he is trying to conceal. 
Thus your partner leads C,5 ; you win with the 
king and return the ace, on which he plays the 
2. The important rule of playing a short suit, 
which rule is called "Down and Out," has been 
previously stated. Inasmuch as on the second 
play your partner played the lowest card that 
was out, you know that he has no more, if you 
know that he does not lead the fourth best. 
In this instance, the declarer played first the 
J and then the 7 and my partner — a fourth 
best player — did not count my hand and give 
me the ruff which would have saved the game. 
At notrump many good players lead the fourth 
best. One advantage of this is that if they 
lead the lowest card of a suit, you see that they 
have only four and this may be important for 
you to know, as showing that the declarer has 
more cards in that suit than your partner. Also, 
on the high card lead, you may at times see all 
the higher cards but one between you and the 
dummy; so that the declarer is marked with 



Fourth Best Lead 113 

only one high card. And it may be plain that 
it is either the ace or the 9, or is either the 
king or the 10, etc. You justly infer that the 
declarer of the notrump is likely to have the 
higher card and finesse to beat the dummy, 
with a comparatively safe position instead of 
a very doubtful one. 

If you are playing habitually with poor play- 
ers, you can both eat your cake and have it; 
for your card is more informatory, and if one 
of these players is the declarer, he does not 
count and is wholly ignorant of the powerful 
weapon that the disclosure of a long, ragged 
suit gives him; both by enabling him to count 
the hand and to take a sure finesse which other- 
wise he would not think of taking. The lead of 
the top of an intermediate sequence to the Q or 
J or 10 is the limit of safe high-card leads. If 
the suit is more vulnerable than this, the advan- 
tage of the lead is greatly with the declarer, if 
he is a good player. My objection to the lead 
is from the great benefits that I have seen the 
declarer obtain from the lead; and because a 
good player will in the proper situations finesse 
to beat the dummy, without the exposure of the 
fourth best lead which occurs when he does not 
have cards to beat the dummy. This is espe- 
cially so with a seven or six-card suit where 
the partner may often be marked with only 



114 Dummy Play 

one, thus showing that he cannot return the 
suit, and revealing one-half of the leader's hand 
to the declarer, so that in a few more leads he 
can tell every card in both hands. Therefore in 
tournament hands the leader is always required 
to open his fourth best and upon this disastrous 
lead the declarer proceeds to make a grand slam 
without any trouble. If you will take any book 
which contains illustrative hands you will find 
that the advantages are either with the declarer 
or he is made out a very poor player or play- 
ing against very poor players. Thus to show 
the advantage of the fourth best lead, the illus- 
trative hand in Dalton's Bridge Abridged makes 
the leader lead the 5 of diamonds ; dummy has 
4 to K,9,6,3 and does not cover, although the 
declarer has not a diamond in his hand! Com- 
pare this with hand 8 in the American Bridge 
Abridged, where the leader leads 6,s from 
J,9,7,6,3; the dummy has A,10,8,4 and the de- 
clarer has K,5,2. He applies his 11 rule and 
gets his usual grand slam. And these illustra- 
tive hands in the books are fairly representa- 
tive for the following reason. If all the higher 
cards are with the partners, there is no advan- 
tage in the lead; but if all or some of them are 
with the declarer and dummy, he wins the game 
by the information given him, deriving an even 
greater advantage from the ability to count the 



Fourth Best Lead 115 

leader's hand than from the sure, low finesses 
which are indicated. Thus take the lead of the 
7 from K,J,9,7,x,x,x. There are hundreds of 
combinations against the lead; the only favor- 
able one is dummy's Q,x,x ; yours A,10,x, where 
a good player will always play the 10. Dummy 
might have Q,8,x,x; yours A,10; but here you 
must at once play your ace and return the suit, 
so as not to block it. In the six-card suit there 
is also dummy's Q,8,x,x against your A,10,x, 
where also you must play your ace and clear 
the suit; for your partner's suit is shut out by 
your attempt to catch the Q unless you can put 
him twice in the lead. In the five-card suit there 
is a distribution occurring twelve times in 1,000 
according to the tables, 5,4,4,0. Assuming that 
the declarer has made his notrump on only three 
suits, which is even more unlikely than this 
unlikely combination, it is possible that the 
dummy shall have Q,8,x,x against your A,10,x,x, 
in which case the Q may be captured. This is 
the only favorable position of 7 from K,J,9,7,x 
for thje lead in the thousands of combinations, 
always assuming that the play is with good play- 
ers. The beginner will find it greatly to his ad- 
vantage to sort out and play other combina- 
tions; for in no other way can he arrive so 
quickly to actual knowledge of the possibilties of 
different hands and the right ways of finessing 



116 Dummy Play 

as by this. This knowledge is even more impor- 
tant than whether he leads one way or another 
because he has made his own analysis of the 
strength and weakness of the high cards accord- 
ing to their possible distributions ; and if he un- 
derstands this, he has actual card sense. 



THE LAWS OF AUCTION BRIDGE 

By Permission of the Whist Club of New York 

The Rubber 

1. The partners first winning 2 games win the 
rubber. 

Scoring 

2. A game consists of 30 points obtained by tricks 
alone. 

3. Every deal is played out, and any points in ex- 
cess of the 30 necessary for the game are counted. 

4. "When the declarer wins the number of tricks 
bid, each one above 6 counts toward the game 2 points 
when spades are trumps, 6 when clubs are trumps, 
7 when diamonds are trumps, 8 when hearts are 
trumps, 9 when the bid of Royals (or Lilies) is made 
in the spade suit, and 10 when there are no trumps. ' ' 

5. Honors are ace, king, queen, knave and 10 of the 
trump suit ; or the aces when notrump is declared, 

6. Honors are credited in the honor column to the 
original holders, being valued as follows: 3, 4, 5, 
honors held between partners equal the value of 2, 
4, 5, tricks respectively ; 4 in one hand equal the value 
of 8 tricks and if the partner holds the other honor 
equal the value of 9 tricks; all in one hand equal the 
value of 10 tricks. When notrump is declared 3 aces 



118 The Laws of Auction Beidge 

held between partners count 30 and 4 aces 40, but 4 
aces in one hand count 100, 

7. Slam is made when 7 by cards is scored, inde- 
pendently of tricks taken as penalty for the revoke ; 
it adds 40 points to the honor count. 

8. Little slam is made when 6 by cards is similarly 
scored; it adds 20 points to the honor count, 

9. Chicane (one hand void of trumps) is equal in 
value to simple honors. Double chicane is equal in 
value to 4 honors, 

10. The value of honors, slam, little slam or chicane, 
is not affected by doubling or redoubling, 

11. At the conclusion of a rubber the trick and 
honor scores of each side are added, and 250 points 
are added to the score of the winners. The differ- 
ence between the completed scores is the number of 
points of the rubber. 

12. An error in the honor score may be corrected 
at any time before the score of the rubber has been 
made up and agreed upon. 

13. An error in the trick score may be corrected 
prior to the conclusion of the game in which it oc- 
curred. Such game shall not be considered concluded 
until a bid has been made in the following game ; or, 
if it be the final score of the rubber, until the score 
has been made up and agreed upon. 

Cutting 

14. In cutting the ace is the lowest card; "as be- 
tween cards of otherwise equal value, the lowest is 
the heart, next the diamond, next the club, and high- 
est the spade." 



Eights of Entry 119 

15. Every player must cut from the same pack. 

16. Should a player expose more than one card, 
the highest is his cut. 

Forming Tables 

17. The prior right of playing is with those first 
in the room. If there be more than four candidates, 
the privilege of playing is decided by cutting. The 
four who cut the lowest cards play first. 

18. After the table is formed, the players cut to 
decide upon partners, the lower two playing against 
the higher two. The lowest is the dealer who has 
choice of cards and seats, and who, having made his 
decision, must abide by it. 

19. Six players constitute a complete table. 

20. The right to succeed any player who may retire 
is acquired by announcing a desire to do so. 

Cutting Out 

21. If at the end of a rubber, admission be claimed 
by one or two candidates, the player or players hav- 
ing played the greatest number of consecutive rub- 
bers shall withdraw; but when all have played the 
same number, they must cut to decide upon the out- 
goers ; the highest are out. 

Rights of Entry 

22. A candidate desiring to enter a table must de- 
clare such wish before any player at the table cuts 
a card, for the purpose either of beginning a new 
rubber or of cutting out. 

23. In the formation of new tables those candidates 



120 The Laws of Auction Bridge 

who have not played at any other table have the prior 
right of entry. Those who have already played de- 
cide their right of admission by cutting. 

24. When one or more players belonging to another 
table aid in making up a new one, the new players 
shall be the first to go out. 

25. A player who cuts into one table, while belong- 
ing to another, shall forfeit his prior right of re- 
entry into the latter, unless he has helped to form 
a new table. In this event he may signify his inten- 
tion of returning to his original table when his place 
at the new one can be filled. 

26. If anyone break up a table, the remaining play- 
ers have a prior right at other tables before him. 

Shuffling 

27. The pack must not be shuffled below the table 
nor so that the face of any card may be seen. 

28. The dealer's partner must collect the cards 
from the preceding deal and has the right to shuffle 
the cards first. Each player has the right to shuffle 
subsequently. The dealer has the right to shuffle last ; 
but should a card or cards be seen during the shuffling, 
or while giving the pack to be cut, he must reshuffle. 

29. After shuffling, the cards properly collected 
must be placed face downward to the left of the 
next dealer. 

The Deal 

30. Each player deals in his turn; the order of 
dealing is to the left.. 

31. The player on the dealer's right cuts the pack, 



A New Deal 121 

and in dividing it must leave not fewer than four 
cards in each packet; if in cutting or replacing one 
of the two packets, a card be exposed, or if there 
be any doubt or confusion as to the exact place in 
which the pack was divided, there must be a fresh 
cut. 

32. When the player whose duty it is to cut has 
once separated the pack, he can neither reshuffle nor 
recut, except as provided in law 31, 

33. Should the dealer shuffle the cards after the 
cut, the pack must be cut again. 

34. The 52 cards shall be dealt face downwards. 
The deal is not completed until the last card has 
been dealt. 

35. There is no penalty for a misdeal. The cards 
must be dealt again, 

A New Deal 

36. There must be a new deal: 

(a) If the cards be not dealt into 4 packets, 
one at a time and in regular rotation, 
beginning at the dealer's left; 

(&) If during a deal, or during the play, the 
pack be proved incorrect or imperfect; 

(c) If any card be faced in the pack or be 

exposed during the deal ' on, above, or 
below the table ' ; 

(d) If any player have dealt to him a greater 

number of cards than 13, whether dis- 
covered before or during the play; 

(e) If the dealer deal 2 cards at once and deal 

a third before correcting the error; 



122 The Laws of Auction Bkidge 

(/) If the dealer omit to have the pack cut 
and either adversary call attention to the 
fact prior to the completion of the deal 
and before either adversary has looked 
at any of his cards; 

(g) If the last card does not come in its regular 
order to the dealer. 

37. Should three players have their right number of 
cards, the fourth, less than 13, and not discover such 
deficiency until he has played, the deal stands; he, 
not being dummy, is answerable for any established 
revoke he may have made, as if the missing card or 
cards had been in his hand. Any player may search 
the other pack for it or them, 

38. If during or at the conclusion of the play one 
player be found to hold more than the proper num- 
ber of cards and another have an equal number less, 
the hand is void. 

39. A player dealing out of turn or with the adver- 
saries cards may be corrected before the last card is 
dealt; otherwise the deal must stand and the game 
proceed as if the deal had been correct. " A player 
who has looked at any of his cards may not correct 
such deal, nor may his partner." 

40. A player can neither cut, shuffle, nor deal 
for his partner without the permission of his adver- 



Declaring 

41. The dealer having examined his hand must de- 
clare to win at least one odd trick, either with a 
trump suit or at notrump. 



Declaring 123 

42. After the dealer has made his declaration, each 
player in turn, commencing with the player on the 
dealer's left has the right to pass or to make a higher 
declaration, or to double the last declaration made, 
or to redouble a declaration which has been doubled, 
subject to the provisions of law 52. 

43. A declaration of a greater number of tricks in 
a suit of lower value, which equals the last declara- 
tion in value of points, shall be considered a higher 
declaration — e. g., a declaration of 3 clubs is a higher 
declaration than 2 royals and 4 clubs is higher than 
3 hearts. 

44. A player in his turn may overbid the previous 
declaration any number of times, and may also over- 
bid his partner, but he cannot overbid his own decla- 
ration which has been passed by the other three 
players. 

45. When the final declaration has been made — i. e,, 
when the last declaration has been passed by the 
other three players — the player who has made such 
declaration (or in the case where both partners have 
made declarations in the same suit, or of notrump, 
the player who first made such declaration) shall 
play the combined hands of himself and of his part- 
ner, the latter becoming dummy. 

46. When the player of the two hands (herein- 
after termed the declarer) wins at least as many 
tricks as he declared to do, he scores the full value 
of the tricks won (see laws 4 and 6). When he fails, 
his adversaries score in the honor column, 50 points 
for each under trick — ^i. e., each trick short of the 
number declared; or, if the declaration have been 



124 The Laws of Auction Bridge 

doubled, or redoubled, 100 or 200 respectively for 
each such trick; neither the declarer nor his adver- 
saries score anything toward the game. 

47. The loss on the declaration of "One spade" 
shall be limited to 100 points, whether doubled or 
not, unless redoubled. 

48. If a player make a declaration (other than pass- 
ing) out of turn, either adversary may demand a new 
deal or may allow the declaration so made to stand, 
when the bidding shall continue as if the declaration 
had been in order. 

49. If a player in bidding fail to declare a num- 
ber of tricks sufficient to overbid the previous bid, 
he shall be considered to have declared the requisite 
number of tricks in the bid which he has made, and 
* either adversary ' may call attention to the insuffi- 
cient bid ; but if either of them pass double or make a 
higher bid, the offence is condoned. When the in- 
sufficient bid is corrected to the requisite number of 
tricks in the bid, the partner of the declarer (in error) 
shall be debarred from making any further declara- 
tion or double. If a player make an impossible bid, 
it is equivalent to a bid of all the tricks, in which 
case neither the offending player or his partner can 
make any further declaration during that hand un- 
less either adversary double. "The opponents of the 
offending player may proceed with a higher bid, or 
may either of them demand a new deal, or they may 
treat the declaration as a final bid." 

50. After the final declaration has been made, a 
player may not give his partner any information as 
to a previous declaration, whether made by himself or 



Doubling and Redoubling 125 

by either adversary, but a player may inquire, at 
any time, what was the final declaration. 

Doubling and Redoubling 

51. The effect of doubling and redoubling is that 
the value of each trick over 6 is doubled or quadrup- 
pled, but it does not increase the value of a declara- 
tion — e. g., a declaration of 2 diamonds is higher than 
one notrump, although the notrump declaration has 
been doubled. 

52. Any declaration can be doubled and redoubled 
once, but not more; a player cannot double his part- 
ner's declaration, nor redouble his partner's double, 
but he may redouble a declaration of his partner 
which has been doubled by an adversary. 

53. The act of doubling or redoubling reopens the 
bidding. "When a declaration has been doubled or 
redoubled, any player, including the declarer or his 
partner, can in his proper turn make a further decla- 
ration of higher value. 

54. When a player whose declaration has been dou- 
bled makes good his declaration by winning at least 
the declared number of tricks, he scores a bonus which 
consists of 50 points in the honor column for winning 
the number of tricks declared, and a further 50 
points for each additional trick he may win, if he 
or his partner have redoubled, the bonus is doubled. 

55. If a player double out of turn, ' either adver- 
sary ' may demand a new deal. 

56. When the final declaration has been made the 
play shall begin, and the player on the left of the 
declarer shall lead. 



126 The Laws of Auction Bridge 

57. A declaration once made cannot be altered, un- 
less it have been doubled or a higher declaration made. 

Dummy 

58. As soon as the eldest hand has led, the declarer's 
partner shall place his cards face upward on the 
table, and the duty of playing the cards from that 
hand shall devolve upon the declarer. 

59. Before placing his cards upon the table, the 

declarer's partner has all the rights of a 

player, but after so doing takes no part 

whatever in the play, except that he has the 

right : 

(a) To ask the declarer whether he have any 

of a suit which he may have renounced; 

(&) To call the declarer's attention to the fact 

that too many or too few cards have 

been played to a trick ; 

(c) To correct the claim of either adversary to 

a penalty to which the latter is not en- 
titled ; 

(d) To call attention to the fact that a trick 

has been erroneously taken by either 
side; 

(e) To participate in the discussion of any 

disputed question of fact after it has 
arisen between the declarer and either 
adversary ; 
(/) To correct an erroneous score. 

60. Should the declarer's partner call attention to 
any other incident of the play in consequence of 



Cabds Exposed Before Play 127 

which any penalty might have been exacted, the de- 
clarer is precluded from exacting such penalty. 

61. If the declarer's partner, by touching a card 
or otherwise, suggest a play of a card from dummy, 
either adversary may, without consultation, call upon 
the declarer to play or not to play the card sug- 
gested. 

62. Dummy is not liable to the penalty for a re- 
voke; if he revoke and the error be not discovered 
until the trick is turned and quitted, the trick must 
stand, 

63. A card from the declarer's own hand is not 
played until actually quitted; "but should he name 
or touch a card in the dummy, such card is considered 
as played, unless he, in touching the card, say, 'I 
arrange, ' or words to that effect. If he simultaneously 
touch two or more cards, he may elect which one 
to play." 

Cards Exposed Before Play 

64. If before the cards have been dealt, and before 
the trump declaration has been finally determined, 
any player expose a card from his hand, ' either ad- 
versary ' may demand a new deal. If the deal be 
allowed to stand, the exposed card may be taken up 
and cannot be called, " If any player lead before 
the final declaration has been determined, the partner 
of the offending player may not make any further 
bid during that hand, and the declarer may call a 
lead from the adversary whose turn it is to lead." 

65. If after the final declaration has been accepted 
and before a card is led, the partner of the player 



128 The Laws of Auction Bkidgb 

who has to lead to the first trick, expose a card from 
his hand, the declarer may, instead of calling the 
card, require the leader not to lead the suit of the 
exposed card ; if so exposed by the leader it is subject 
to call. 

Cards Exposed During Play 

66. All cards exposed after the original lead by 
the declarer's adversaries are liable to be called, and 
such cards must be left face upward upon the table. 

67. The following are exposed cards: 

(a) Two or more cards played at once; 

(6) Any card dropped with its face upward on 
the table, even though snatched up so 
quickly that it cannot be named; 

(c) "Any card so held by a player that his 

partner sees any portion of its face"; 

(d) "Any card mentioned by either adversary 

as being held by him or his partner." 

68. A card dropped on the floor or elsewhere be- 
low the table or so held that an adversary but not 
the partner sees it, is not an exposed card. 

69. If two or more cards be played at once by 
either of the declarer's adversaries, the declarer shall 
have the right to call anyone of such cards to the 
current trick, and the other card or cards are exposed. 

70. If without waiting for his partner to play, 
either of the declarer's adversaries play on the table 
the best card or lead one which is a winning card, 
as against the declarer and dummy, and continue 
(without waiting for his partner to play) to lead 
several such cards, the declarer may demand that the 



Leads Out of Turn 129 

partner of the player in fault win, if he can, the 
first or any other of these tricks, and the other cards 
thus improperly played are exposed cards. 

71. If either or both of the declarer's adversaries 
throw his or their cards on the table face upwards, 
such cards are exposed and are liable to be called 
(but if he places his packet on the table with only 
the top card exposed, only the visible card is ex- 
posed) ; but if either adversary retain his hand he 
cannot be forced to abandon it. Cards exposed by 
the declarer are not liable to be called. If the de- 
clarer say, "I have the rest," or any other words 
indicating that the remaining tricks or any number 
of them are his, he may be required to place his cards 
face upward on the table. ' His adversaries are not 
liable to have any of their cards called should they 
thereupon expose them.' 

72. If a player who has rendered himself liable to 
have the highest or lowest of a suit called (Laws 79, 
85, 92) fail to play as directed or if, when called on 
to lead one suit he lead another, having in his hand 
one or more of the suit demanded (Laws 73 and 93) 
or if called upon to win or lose a trick fail to do so 
when he can (Laws 70, 79, 92), he is liable to the 
penalty for a revoke, unless such play be corrected 
before the trick is turned and quitted. 

Leads Out of Turn 

73. If either of the declarer's adversaries lead out 
of turn the declarer may either treat the card so 
lead as an exposed card or may call a suit as soon 
as it is the turn of either adversary to lead. 



130 The Laws of Auction Beidge 

74. If the declarer lead out of turn, either from his 
own hand or dummy, he incures no penalty ; but may 
not rectify the error after the second hand has played. 

75. If any player lead out of turn and the other 
three follow, the trick is complete and the error can- 
not be rectified; but if only the second, or second 
and third play to the false lead, their cards may be 
taken back ; there is no penalty against any one except 
the original offender, and then only when he is one 
of the declarer's adversaries as specified in Law 73. 

76. A player cannot be compelled to play a card 
which would oblige him to revoke. 

77. The call of an exposed card may be repeated 
until such card has been played, 

78. If a player called upon to play a suit have 
none of it, the penalty is paid. 

Cards Played in Error 

79. Should the fourth hand, not being dummy or 
declarer, play before the second, the latter may be 
called upon "to play his highest or lowest card of the 
suit played, " or to win or lose the trick. 

80. If any one, not being dummy, omit playing 
to a trick and such error be not corrected before he 
has played to the next, the adversaries or either of 
them may claim a new deal; should they decide that 
such deal is to stand, the surplus card at the end of 
the hand is considered to have been played to the 
imperfect trick, but does not constitute a revoke 
therein. 

81. If any one, except dummy, play two or more 
cards to the same trick and the mistake be not cor- 



The Revoke 131 

rected, he is answerable for any consequent revokes 
he may have made. If during the play the error be 
detected, the tricks may be counted face downward 
to see if any trick contain more than four cards; 
should this be the case, the trick which contains a 
surplus card or cards may be examined and the card 
or cards restored to the original holder, and he (not 
being dummy) shall be liable for any revoke he may 
meanwhile have made. 

The Revoke 

82. A revoke occurs when a player, other than 
dummy, holding one or more cards of the suit led, 
plays a card of a diff:erent suit. It becomes an es- 
tablished revoke if the trick in which it occurs be 
turned and quitted (i. e., the hand removed from 
the trick after it has been turned face downward on 
the table) ; or if either the revoking player or his 
partner, whether in turn or otherwise, lead or play 
to the following trick. 

83. The penalty for each established revoke shall be : 
(a) "When the declarer revokes his adversaries 

add 150 points to their score in the honor 
column, in addition to any penalty 
which he may have incurred for not 
making good his declaration"; 
(&) "If either of the adversaries revoke the 
declarer may either add 150 points to 
his score in the honor column or may 
take three tricks from his opponents and 
add them to his own. Such tricks may 



132 The Laws of Auction Bridge 

assist the declarer to make good his de- 
claration, but shall not entitle him to 
score any bonus in the honor column, 
in the case of the declaration having 
been doubled or redoubled"; 
(c) "When more than one revoke is made dur- 
ing the play of the hand, the penalty 
for each revoke after the first shall be 
100 points in the honor column." A 
revoking side cannot score, except for 
honors, aces or chicane. 

84. A player may ask his partner if he have a 
card of the suit which he has renounced; should the 
question be asked before the trick is turned and 
quitted, subsequent turning and quitting does not 
establish a revoke, and the error may be corrected 
unless the question be answered in the negative, or 
unless the revoking player or his partner have led or 
played to the following trick. 

85. If a player correct his mistake in time to save 
a revoke, any player or players who have followed him 
may withdraw their cards and substitute others, and 
the cards so withdrawn are not exposed. If the 
player in fault be one of the declarer's adversaries, 
the card played in error is exposed and the declarer 
may call it whenever he pleases; or he may require 
the offender to play his highest or lowest card of the 
suit to the trick, but this penalty cannot be exacted 
from the declarer. 

86. At the end of a hand the claimants of a revoke 
may search all the tricks. If the cards have been 
mixed the claim may be argued and proved if possi- 



General Rules 133 

ble ; but no proof is necessary and the claim is estab- 
lished if, after it has been made, the accused player 
or his partner mix the cards before they have been 
sufficiently examined by the adversaries. 

87. A revoke must be claimed before the cards have 
been cut for the following deal. 

88. Should both sides revoke, the only score per- 
mitted shall be for honors, or aces, or chicane. If 
one side revoke more than once, the penalty of 100 
points for each extra revoke shall then be scored by 
the other side. 

General Eules 

89. There must not be any consultation between 
partners as to the enforcement of penalties. If they 
do so consult, the penalty is paid. 

90. Once a trick is complete, turned and quitted, it 
must not be looked at (except under Law 81) until 
the end of the hand. 

91. Any player during the play of a trick or after 
the four cards are played and before they are touched 
for the purpose of gathering them together, may de- 
mand that the cards be placed before their respective 
players. 

92. If either of the declarer's adversaries, prior to 
to his partner playing, call attention to the trick, 
either by saying that it is his or without being re- 
quested so to do by naming his card or drawing it 
toward him, the declarer may require such partner 
to play his highest or lowest card of the suit led, 
or to win or lose the trick. 

93. "Either of the declarer's adversaries may call 



134 The Laws of Auction Bkidge 

his partner's attention to the fact, that he is about 
to play or lead out of turn; but if, during the play 
of a hand, he make any unauthorized reference to any 
incident of the play or of any bid previously made, 
the declarer may call a suit from the adversary whose 
turn it is next to lead." 

94. In all cases where a penalty has been incurred, 
the offender is bound to give reasonable time for the 
decision of his adversaries; but if a wrong penalty 
be demanded none can be enforced. 

95. Where the declarer or his partner has incurred 
a penalty, one of his adversaries may say : ' ' Partner, 
will you exact the penalty or shall I?" But whether 
this is said or not, if either adversary name the pen- 
alty his decision is final. 

New Cards 

96. Unless a pack be imperfect, no player shall 
have the right to call for one new pack. If fresh 
cards be demanded, two packs must be furnished. If 
they be produced during a rubber, the adversaries 
shall have the choice of the new cards. If it be the 
beginning of a new rubber, the dealer, whether he or 
one of his adversaries be the party calling for the 
new cards, shall have the choice. New cards must be 
called for before the pack is cut for a new deal. 

97. A card or cards torn or marked must be re- 
placed by agreement or new cards furnished. 

Bystanders 

98. While a bystander, by agreement among the 
players, may decide any question, he must on no ac- 



Bystanders 135 

count say anything unless appealed to; and if he 
make any remark which calls attention to an over- 
sight affecting the score, or the exaction of a penalty, 
he is liable to be called upon by the players to pay 
the stakes ("not extras"), lost. 



ETIQUETTE OF AUCTION BRIDGE 

In Bridge slight intimations convey much informa- 
tion. A code is compiled for the purpose of succinctly 
stating laws and for fixing penalties for an offence. 
To offend against a rule of etiquette is far more se- 
rious than to offend against a law; for while in the 
latter case the offender is subject to the prescribed 
penalties, in the former his adversaries have no 
redress. 

1. "Declarations should be made in a simple man- 
ner, thus — One Heart, One Notrump, or, I pass (No), 
or, I double— and must be made orally and not by 
gesture. ' ' 

2. Aside from his legitimate declaration, a player 
should not give any indication by word or gesture as 
to the nature of his hand, or as to his pleasure or dis- 
pleasure at a play, a bid or a double. 

3. If a player demand that the cards be placed, he 
should do so for his own information and not to call 
his partner's attention to any card or play. 

4. No player, other than the declarer, should lead 
until the previous trick is turned and quitted; nor, 
after having led a winning card, should he draw an- 
other from his hand before his partner has played 
to the current trick. 

5. "A player should not play a card with such em- 
phasis as to draw attention to it." Nor should he 
detach one card from his hand and subsequently play 
another. 



Portland Club Laws 137 

6. A player should not purposely incur a penalty 
because he is willing to pay it, nor should he make 
a second revoke to conceal the first. 

7. "Players should avoid discussion and refrain 
from talk during the play, as it may be annoying to 
players at the table or to those at other tables in 
the room." 

8. "The dummy should not leave his seat for the 
purpose of watching his partner's play, neither should 
he call attention to the score, nor to any card or cards 
that he or the other players hold, nor to any bid 
previously made. ' ' 

9. "If the declarer say, 'I have the rest,' or any 
words indicating that the remaining tricks are his, and 
one or both of the other players should expose his or 
their cards, or request the declarer to play out his 
hand, he should not allow any information so obtained 
to influence his play nor take any finesse not an- 
nounced by him at the time of making such claim, 

• unless it had been previously proved to be a winner. ' ' 

10. " If a player concede in error one or more tricks, 
the concession should stand." 

11. "A player having been cut out of one table 
should not seek admission into another unless willing 
to cut for the privilege of entry." 

12. "No player shall look at any of his cards until 
the deal is completed." 

Portland Club Laws 

The words between quotation marks are not in the 
Portland Club Laws. The rest is mainly verbatim. 
The important difference is the penalty for a revoke. 



138 Laws op Three -Handed Auction 

By the Portland Club Laws each revoke of the de- 
clarer counts 150 points in the honor column. If 
either adversary revoke, the declarer has the option 
of taking 150 points in the honor column for each 
revoke, or of taking three tricks from the opponents 
and adding them to his own. If there are two or 
.more revokes, he may choose separately for each re- 
voke — e. g., taking 150 points for the first and three 
tricks for the next. Also, where an adversary of the 
declarer leads and after the others have played plays 
again it is a lead out of turn, if he have not taken 
the trick. Also, it is the custom at the Portland 
Club, if the declarer throw down two cards at the 
end thinking that he must lose them, when in fact 
one of them must win, to allow him that trick. If the 
declarer call a wrong card as exposed by an adversary 
he is liable to have a suit called when first he or his 
partner have the lead. The left hand adversary may 
demand a new deal under laws 49, 55, 64, 

Laws of Three-Handed Auction 
The foregoing laws apply, except the game is played 
by three players, four make the table complete. Each 
player bids on his own account. If a player bids 
out of turn he forfeit 50 points to each of the others, 
but the right to declare remains with the proper 
player. The player making the final declaration plays 
that hand against the other two. If after the deal is 
completed and before a card is led, either adversary 
of the declarer expose a card from his hand he shall 
forfeit 100 points to each of the other players, and 
the declarer may call upon the eldest hand not to 



Laws of Three-Handed Auction 139 

lead that suit; the card is also an exposed card. If 
a player double out of turn he forfeits 100 points 
to each of his adversaries, and the player whose de- 
claration has been doubled shall have the right to 
say whether the double shall stand. The bidding is 
then resumed ; but if the double has been disallowed, 
the said declaration cannot be doubled by the player 
on the right of the offender. "When two games have 
been won by the same player, he wins the rubber. 
When the declarer makes good his declaration, he 
scores as at auction; when he fails to do so, he loses 
to each of his adversaries. Honors are scored by 
each player severally — i. e., for one heart he scores 
8; for two, 16, etc., and in a notrump for each ace 
10, with the same score as auction for 4 in one hand, 
etc. ; 100 points are scored by each player for every 
game he wins. Also the winner of the rubber adds 
250 to his score. At the end of the rubber the sep- 
arate scores are added and each player wins from 
or loses to each other player the difference between 
his score and that of the said other player. 

In order to make this game a success the restric- 
tion should be adopted that no player shall make his 
first bid a notrump without an ace and a king in 
his hand, or two kings and a queen. Otherwise the 
game becomes a scramble for the dummy and the 
first bidder bids notrump on nothing. Adopting this 
restriction, if the first bidder bids notrump and the 
second bidder makes a bid, the third player has an 
actual chance of a winning partnership and rash bids 
are dangerous. 



LAWS OF BRIDGE 

The foregoing are the Bridge laws verbatim, except 
where they name the laws specially applicable to 
auction. In place of these latter the laws are as fol- 
lows: Each trick above 6 counts spades, 2; clubs, 4; 
diamonds, 6; hearts, 8; notrump, 12. (11) 100 points 
are added to the score of the winners (41-50, sub- 
stitute). The dealer may either make the trump or 
pass the declaration to his partner. If the dealer's 
partner make the trump without receiving permission 
from the dealer, either adversary may demand that 
the trump shall stand or that there shall be a new 
deal, provided that no declaration as to doubling has 
been made. Should the dealer's partner pass the dec- 
laration to the dealer, either adversary may claim a 
new deal or compel the offending player to declare 
the trump. If either of the dealer's adversaries make 
a declaration, the dealer may either claim a new deal 
or proceed as if no declaration had been made. 

Doubling 51-57, Substitute. — The effect of doub- 
ling, redoubling, and so on, is that the value of each 
trick above 6, is doubled, quadrupled, and so on. The 
eldest hand has the first right. If he do not double, 
he asks his partner "May I lead?" His partner must 
answer, Yes, or, I double. After a double, the de- 
clarer has the first right to redouble. If he say, no, 
his partner may redouble. The right to double again 
is first with the original doubler, and on his pass with 



Laws of Bkidge 141 

his partner. Thus the doubling may continue until 
the value of each trick above 6 exceeds 100 points 
when there shall be no further doubling, if any player 
objects. If the right hand adversary of the doubler 
double before his partner has asked "May I lead?" 
the declarer has the right to say whether the double 
shall stand. If any player redouble out of turn, the 
last doubler shall decide whether or not the double 
shall stand. If the eldest hand lead before the doub- 
ling be completed, his partner may redouble only 
with the consent of the last doubler. If the eldest 
hand lead without asking permission, his partner may 
only double by consent of the maker ; but if the right 
hand adversary of the dealer say, "May I play?" his 
partner does not lose his right to double ; and if this 
adversary lead out of turn, the maker may call a 
suit from the eldest hand who may only double if 
the maker consent. But there is no penalty here if 
any part of the dummy hand have been placed on 
the table. When the question "May I lead?" has 
been answered in the affirmative, or when the doubling 
has ceased, the eldest hand leads. (64) As above, 
except that the exposed card remains exposed. (65) 
If after the deal has been completed and before a 
card is led, any player exposed a card, his partner 
shall forfeit any right to double or redouble, and if 
the offender be the leader's partner, the dealer may 
require the leader not to lead that suit and the card 
remains exposed. (85) The penalty of each revoke is 
three tricks taken from the revoking player and added 
to those of the adversaries, and that the revoking side 
cannot attain a higher score in that hand than 28, 



142 Laws of Bridge 

nor score any slam. (The Portland Club rule is that 
the adversaries, after consultation, may either take 
three tricks or deduct the value of three tricks from 
the revoker's score, or add the value of three tricks 
to their own score so that at notrump they can go 
out and the side revoking cannot attain a higher score 
toward the game than 28.) 

Bridge Declarations 

A queen above the average is the bridge rule for 
notrump ; or 2 aces and a protected suit or 3 aces ; or 
a solid suit and outside ace. The foregoing analysis 
applies to many notrumps with the exception that 
hands with missing suits are much more dangerous 
at bridge. Call any good heart make instead of a 
doubtful notrump. Call any suit to the score. When 
the dealer has passed the dummy is called on to be 
cautious. Here many good players adopt the rule of 
not passing a trickless hand. Any good auction player 
will have no difficulty in declaring at bridge with the 
aid of the analysis which has been given for the 
auction bids. If the third hand doubles, lead your 
best heart. 



LAWS AND PENALTIES 

"A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigor 
of the game." Some time ago my opinion was 
asked as to the rights of the dummy in the fol- 
lowing case: A very well known American 
player playing at bridge in a well-known for- 
eign club — not the Portland — and with gentle- 
men of unquestionable fairness and integrity, 
had wagered one monkey extra. Upon the last 
game of the rubber, his partner was playing the 
dummy and the adversary with whom he had 
made the wager revoked. After a trick, the 
dealer noticed the play of a card which proved 
the revoke and the adversary said: Yes, I re- 
voked all right. Thereupon the dealer said: 
Well, I will not claim it. This revoke, if 
claimed, would have won the rubber for the 
dealer, which was now lost. No doubt is felt 
but that, if the dummy had objected, the ad- 
versary would have conceded the rubber, but 
the visitor did not think that he should raise 
the question there. I was asked whether, as 
representing a card committee, I would decide 
that the player of the dummy could not waive 
a conceded revoke. It seems evident that the 
dummy player was influenced by the feeling 



144 Laws and Penalties 

that the Portland Club penalty is too severe, 
but playing the game, it was his plain duty to 
enforce the penalty. Penalties are not made 
for the purpose of punishing unfair play. It 
is always assumed that the players intend to 
play the game according to the spirit of the 
laws. Thus supposing that at notrump you are 
leading off a great suit from the dummy which 
is in fact a solid suit if I play to it the third 
time, but if I revoke I will block the suit and 
save the game, it would be cheating for me to 
do this purposely. The declarer has the right 
in this position to require that the card shall be 
played. It might have been well for the laws 
to have said this directly. It would be pos- 
sible to make laws which would be much more 
concise than the foregoing laws. The advan- 
tage of these laws, and a great advantage, is 
that they follow the old whist laws and use the 
same language so far as is practicable. There- 
fore they apply to a great number of questions 
which have been the subject of controversy, as 
anyone will see by looking at Drayson's De- 
cisions, and their meaning has become settled 
and well known. And it is the settled principle 
under these laws that no one has a right to buy 
a penalty; that is, to deliberately take the risk 
of having to pay it. Considering now the laws 
which are in the nature of penalties, the rea- 



Laws and Penalties 145 

sons are obvious for the laws for a new deal 
36-40; for these define what a deal is. But 
after a correct deal, either adversary, according 
to the American laws, but only the adversary 
on the left in the Portland Club laws, may de- 
mand a new deal ; for a declaration out of turn, 
other than passing, 48; doubling out of turn, 
55 ; for exposing a card before the final bid, 64. 
Also by the American law for an impossible 
declaration, 49. Read this rule carefully, as 
well as the rules for exposed cards; cards 
played out of turn, or in error. These penalties 
are like the hazards at golf; they are part of 
the game and it is unsportsmanlike not to look 
out for them and to insist upon the rigor of 
them. Particularly is this so of the revoke pen- 
alty. " The conversation of the game and its 
intellectual status is impaired," if a player, who 
is able to follow suit, fails to do so. This fail- 
ure causes the players to count the other hands 
incorrectly ; to play differently from what they 
would if the revoke had not been made. There- 
fore the player is encouraged to be alert to 
watch the subsequent play and to discover any 
revoke that has been made, and a severe pen- 
alty is necessary. The good player is strict in 
the enforcement of penalties, but is careful not 
to make any mistake here. If he claims a wrong 
penalty, or if his partner, when not entitled 



146 Laws and Penalties 

to call the penalty, suggests it in any way, the 
penalty cannot be enforced. 

Bead law 93 carefully. This law is not in 
the Portland Club laws and allows you to call 
your partner's attention to the fact that he is 
about to play or lead out of turn, but permits 
the declarer to call a suit for any unauthorized 
reference to any incident of the play. Be very 
careful about the revoke penalty. If your part- 
ner renounces, be sure to ask him; and do not 
say — None ? — but say — Have — you — no — heart? 
And when he asks you this, do not say — no — 
but say — I will look. And look through all your 
cards before you say — NO. The importance of 
this rule is great; for when a player revokes 
his attention is on something else, and often it 
is necessary that his attention shall be directed 
to this question. Therefore if you make it your 
rule, when you hear the question, to look back 
to your hand, you will save the revoke, and your 
partner will look upon you as a careful player, 
knowing that all players revoke at times but 
that careless players maintain their revoke even 
after they have been asked. Lastly, in the case 
of the dummy, it is greater carelessness for him 
not to ask the declarer than it is for the de- 
clarer to revoke. 



JUN 7 1912 



